EFF not supporting motion of no confidence in Ethekwini mayor

The EFF in the eThekwini council says it will not be supporting the motion of no confidence in ANC mayor Mxolisi Kaunda.

Councillor Imtiaz Syed of the Active Citizens Coalition(ACC) has filed the motion of no confidence in Kaunda. It is being debated at the eThekwini council meeting under way in Durban.

In November last year, the EFF held a protest outside the Durban City Hall, calling for Kaunda to step down. They accused him of failing at his job.

The EFF’s regional chairperson in eThekwini Themba Mvubu explains, “The problem that we have as the EFF is the attitude of most parties in this council where they take it for granted and just assume that they are entitled in getting our votes even without consulting us. So, we are not going to fall in a trap of opportunism where people decide to be staff riders on things that we initiated from the onset.”

The Speaker of the eThekwini council Thabani Nyawose has announced that party whips have decided that an urgent motion of no confidence in Kaunda, will be heard during the current meeting. This after the meeting was briefly adjourned for whips to meet after a request by the opposition that the motion be heard.

The municipality earlier said this motion would be heard at a later date.

The current meeting was meant to focus only on electing a new deputy mayor.

Nyawose explains says, “In our meeting with whips of parties, we had a looked at a number of factors and in our collective wisdom, we have agreed that the Speaker will table the motion by Councilor Sayed in this special council meeting. It means those who have asked the question, we have agreed with whips of parties that we are going to table the motion.”

Meanwhile, Nyawose says steps will be taken against councillors who failed to attend a sitting last Thursday.

That meeting collapsed because of the absence of ANC and EFF councillors that left the meeting without a quorum.

“This matter is being addressed in line with schedule 7 of Code of Conduct for councilors, and advised with legal and compliance. Because I had to consult legal on how to handle such a matter. But once the matter has been finalised speaker will report to council on the step or decision taken.”