Bitou mayoral election falls flat

The election of a new mayor for the Bitou municipality fell flat yesterday after the nominated candidates tied in the vote.

The council was set to vote for a new mayor after Active United Front (AUF) leader Peter Lobese was booted out in a vote of no confidence two weeks ago, where the DA and the ANC voted together in the motion.

The DA and the ANC each have six seats in the council and the AUF just one.

There were six ballots each for nominated candidates Sandiso Gcabayi of the ANC and Bill Nel of the DA.

However, Lobese was not present at the meeting and was marked absent without notification.

The DA members subsequently left the meeting, saying they were of the view that the mayoral vacancy should be filled before the resumption of council duties.

“We excuse ourselves and we will consult with our leadership,” Nel said.

“We have the opinion that there is a vacancy in the mayoral office, and that has not been filled, so this council is not legally constituted.”

ANC councillor Mphakamisi Mbali cautioned him against the decision.

“Councillors must note that in terms of the recent court case [in the city of Johannesburg] councillors are not allowed to willy-nilly leave council.

“That will be taken as an absence of the councillors — but we must accept the view of the councillors in terms of the divergence of views,” he said.

Council speaker Alderman Euan Wildeman then elected to continue with the council meeting.

“Section 56-6 makes it clear that the deputy executive mayor of a municipality exercises the powers and performs the duties and functions of the executive mayor if the mayor is absent, not available, or if the office of the executive mayor is vacant,” he said.

“Council confirmed the appointment of … councillor Gcabayi, the deputy executive mayor, as acting mayor on April 16 at the special council meeting.

“In my view, council is legally constituted [and] there is no doubt we can continue with the agenda.”

Speaking to The Herald after the meeting, Nel said: “We have no thoughts of engaging a smaller party ... and at this stage we will be following due process that will be interim of the municipal structures act.

“According to that step, there must be a further council meeting seven days from today where a further vote would take place and if that is a tie then there would be a further vote after that.”

Nel said the party was approaching the minister of local government.

“We are going to consider asking them to place this municipality under administration so that we can get officials who are well-trained, professional, and who know what they are doing, so that they can come and assist and sort out the mess in Plettenberg Bay,” he said.

Nel said the control of the ANC and AUF coalition had been disastrous for the municipality.

“We are in millions of [rand] in fruitless and wasteful expenditure, we have incorrect and illegal appointments all over the show and those are the reasons why as the DA we are acting like this,” he said.

Mbali said they were not worried about the stalemate in council.

“It’s simple, the acting mayor Gcabayi will continue to act as per the resolution of April 16 where he was appointed to act until such time the vacancy is filled.”

Asked if he would engage other parties, Mbali said: “Obviously that will be the discussions of the ANC and other parties if there will be such engagements.

“But in terms of caucus of council, we continue with the business of council.”

A special council meeting will sit in seven days to elect an executive mayor.