Vote of no confidence looming in ethekwini
Opposition parties are planning to strip the ANC of its control of the city as the coalition crumbles
Members of the small parties that helped the ANC retain control of the ethekwini metro are preparing to bring a vote of no confidence which, if successful, could see the ANC losing its narrow majority in council — and the city.
The motion will be tabled by Visvin Reddy, whose African Democratic Change (ADEC) was among the 17 one-seat and two-seat parties that dumped a Democratic Alliance-led coalition at the last minute to back the ANC in the mayoral election.
As a result, Mxolisi Kaunda beat the DA’S Nicole Graham to the mayorship by 113 votes to 104, with councillors from ADEC, the Minority Front, the Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) and other smaller parties adding their support to the ANC’S 96 councillors.
Their support was essential for the ANC to make it over the line because the governing party had lost its outright majority in the city and took only 42% of the vote, winning 75 of 111 wards, and was unable to govern the city alone.
The ANC’S Thabani Nyawose was elected as speaker, while the ABC’S Philani Mavundla was voted in as deputy mayor, defeating Mduduzi Nkosi of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), who had been backed by the opposition alliance including the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
Now, Reddy is attempting to trigger a vote of no confidence in the city’s executive committee by using section 53 of the Municipal Systems Act at the next full council meeting, which is scheduled for 30 August.
He believes that dissatisfaction with the ANC among the small parties, and the governing party’s own internal tensions, make this the perfect time to bring the no-confidence vote and remove the party from the city leadership.
Should the vote be successful, the city manager would have 14 days to call another special council meeting to vote for a new city leadership. New mayoral candidates would have to be drawn from the sitting executive committee, which consists of the ANC, DA, ABC and the IFP.
This week, Reddy said that the party’s legal team was drafting a notice to the speaker’s office, which they had until 15 August to submit, so the matter would be on the order paper for the next council meeting.
Reddy, who is a former ANC, Minority Front and DA councillor, said he had decided to bring the motion because of the failure of the city leadership to meet their obligations in running the council.
“We will base it on the failure of the speaker to hold the executive committee accountable to council and the failure to provide councillors with the tools of the trade to perform their roles.
“The elections were held in November but there are councillors who still do not have offices allocated to them today,” Reddy said.
Reddy added that the city leadership’s response to the floods earlier this year had also shown its inability to meet its mandate, with large parts of the city still without water four months later and thousands of residents still homeless and living in halls and other temporary shelters.
“The city is in a crisis and the current leadership has totally failed to deliver,” Reddy said. “They need to go now.
“Councillors from smaller parties [who backed the ANC] are now under pressure from the communities they serve over the failures in service delivery created by the ruling party’s infighting. People are highly dissatisfied that they are not receiving the services their councillors were promised by the ANC in return for their votes,” he added.
Reddy said they had not formally approached the parties but he expected the majority of them to back the no-confidence motion over the ANC’S failure to keep its side of the agreement.
“The motion is currently with our legal team to ensure that it makes it onto the order paper. If this comes before the full council, I have no doubt they will back it and that it will succeed,” he said.
Reddy is hoping to capitalise on dissatisfaction with Mavundla among the smaller parties, which replaced him as leader of a joint forum they had set up to coordinate themselves ahead of the vote in November.
He also believes, despite his party only holding one seat, the small margin between the ANC and the opposition coalition in November meant he only needed to secure the support of one or two of them to swing the vote.
“The margin is tiny, so there is a real opportunity for the small parties to change the city’s future through this vote,” he said.
Reddy also believes that dissatisfaction with Kaunda in the ANC over his pro-unity stance ahead of the recent provincial conference might also see some of its councillors abstain or spoil their votes.
The National Freedom Party (NFP) caucus leader Zandile Myeni, who now heads the forum of small parties, which had accused Mavundla of “dumping” them to focus on his own career as deputy mayor rather than representing their interests, did not respond to calls from M&G.
IFP ethekwini leader Mduduzi Nkosi said that they had not been approached by Reddy but were aware of rumours about a no-confidence motion.
The IFP, which holds 16 seats, would take a decision about whether to back the motion once it was placed before them.
“We have not been approached … maybe they think they can do it without our support but we have been hearing about it. It is not something we have had an opportunity to discuss. We will see it on the agenda of council and then our caucus will discuss it,” Nkosi said.
He said the IFP had not abandoned its positions from November and it was the smaller parties who had somersaulted and decided to back the ANC at the last moment.
“As the opposition, we were together at that time but, unfortunately, they did not vote with us. As you saw, the difference [in votes] was very small,” Nkosi said.
Themba Mvubu, the EFF’S caucus chairperson, said that they had not been approached about the tabling of the motion and declined to comment further.
DA caucus leader Thabani Mthethwa said the party had not been approached about the vote of no confidence but they were likely to support it because the motion would have the effect of removing the ANC and giving his party the opportunity to field a mayoral candidate again.
“Nobody has spoken to us about a vote of no confidence.
“Last November, we took the position that we would field a candidate to take over from the ANC. That is a clear position from our side, and if the smaller parties suddenly have realised that the DA was correct, they are welcome to join the position we had taken last year,” Mthethwa said.
“If they have suddenly realised that the call we were making then is relevant now, they are most welcome to join us.
“We were working with some of them last year to form a city government but they abandoned us,” he said.
“We haven’t moved from where they left us. It was them who abandoned us. We will be waiting for them to come back and say that they now realise they made a mistake.”
The ABC’S Mavundla said that he was aware of rumours about a noconfidence vote, but did not believe that it would be carried, if it were to ever take place.
“This has been said for over a week now, but nothing is happening,” Mavundla said. “We are very much looking forward to it.”
“I’m not sure how ADEC is going to do it with one seat. However, it will be very much welcomed.”
Nyawose said he was aware of rumours about a vote being brought but “I haven’t received a letter yet.”
‘The city is in a crisis and the current leadership has totally failed to deliver. They need to go now’