Removal of eThekwini Municipality Deputy Mayor based on ‘petty politics’: DA

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Skhangiwe Mthiyane

14 December 2022, 11:57 [SAST]

Reading Time: 4 minutes

The Democratic Alliance in the eThekwini Municipality says it decided not to support the motion to remove the former Deputy Mayor Philani Mavundla from the council on Tuesday.

The DA says it believes that Mavundla’s removal is based on petty party politics. Tuesday also saw the resignation of the council’s chief whip, Thembubuhle Ntuli.

According to the DA’s caucus leader, Thabani Mthethwa, “We did not support a motion to remove councillor Mavundla on the basis that it was ambiguous considering the fact that there was a court order that was granted in favour of councillor Mavundla so we did not want to be caught in a web of the ANC and trying to co opt us into their agenda for that reason we felt that we could not support that motion but not only that the reason behind the removing Mavundla really I don’t think it is based on his performance it is based on petty party politics which is something we don’t want to be part of.”

Meanwhile, the African National Congress eThekwini regional secretary Musa Nciki has denied suggestions that relations between Mavundla and the ANC have soured.

Nciki adds that “Was talking more about accountability in terms of service delivery and how we fast track it especially infrastructure and there are no programs progressive programs that seems to be changing the status of our infrastructure as a result we have agreed to recall this seat as the ANC so that we can be able to display our accountability in terms of service delivery, we are still maintaining our relationship with ABC and Mavundla and also in other municipalities but for this Metro we wanted to be more effective on the issues of the infrastructure and for us to be more effective we would need to control that portfolio.”

Deputy Mayor ousted

Mavundla who is the president of the Abantu Batho Congress reached an agreement with the ANC last year, to allow the governing party to retain the municipality after it failed to secure an outright majority following the local government elections.

“The voters hold the ANC accountable. But if the ANC cannot account for 90% of the budget of the City how is it expected to account to voters of this municipality? Therefore the ANC is correct by changing its executive and placing members which its believes will be able to account to the ANC,” says ANC councillor Thanduxolo Sabela.

Sabela provided reasons for the party’s motion to remove deputy mayor Mavundla from the executive committee. This was met with much debate among the council. Eventually, eThekwini speaker Thabani Nyawose allowed the motion to proceed.

“Councillors, Mr Mhlongo is saying the order was saying, don’t proceed to entertain the urgent motion without complying with the law and the rules of council, that was the order, don’t proceed if you are not in compliance with the relevant legislation and the rules of order. Now as we are sitting here councillors, who have complied with the legislation, we have complied with the rules, the court order was warning us not to continue to entertain the urgent motion without complying with the law,” adds Nyawose.

Mavundla’s fate was then taken to a vote.

The ANC was supported by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and smaller parties. This follows a call last week from the EFF in the province for eThekwini Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda to step down. The Democratic Alliance (DA) did not support the motion.

Mavundla plans to challenge his removal. He says he is consulting his legal team on the way forward.

“My gut tell me that we should be in court either this afternoon or tomorrow (Wednesday) but that is going to depend on how our legal experts see it. Remember we are due to be in court on the 3rd of February in anyway. So basically we going to go today to talk about but you can still talk about on the 3rd of February. It may not make any sense if we can worry about getting ourselves ready for the 3rd of February. So whoever that is going to take the position for now it will also be a nice present for that person to have a good Christmas being a deputy mayor.” Mavundla adds

Mavundla will retain his position as a councillor in the opposition benches in the municipality.