Publications
Partners
The ANC’s mayoral candidate in the Rustenburg municipality, Mpho Khunou, has beaten out opponent Rocky Malebane-Metsing of the Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) with 46 votes.
The ANC, therefore, retained Rustenburg municipality by a 46-43 vote, where voting was done by secret ballot.
The Economic Freedom Fighters, Democratic Alliance and F4SD had announced earlier that they would be voting together. The ANC had 43 seats, and opposition parties had 46 seats together.
Late-night drama preceded today’s chaotic Rustenburg council sitting, after two opposition would-be councillors from the EFF-backed F4SD were suspended and then reinstated.
Former ANC members Pogiso Bhotomane and Malebane-Metsing were due to be sworn in as breakaway F4SD councillors. Their lawyers said an F4SD official wrote to the Rustenburg municipal manager, saying the two had been suspended from the party and could not be sworn in as councillors.
After a seven-hour battle and threats of an interdict from the duo, the party informed the council just after noon that the suspension had not been a decision of the leadership and had happened without due process.
Both were allowed to be sworn in as councillors.
EFF leader Julius Malema vowed that the council would no longer be controlled by the ANC. He said his party agreed to work with the F4SD, whose leader, Bosa Ledwaba, was the opposition nominee for the council. DA constituency head Herman Groenewald said opposition parties agreed to vote together against the ANC. The African Independent Congress’s (AIC) position was, however, unclear.
The AIC agreed to vote with the ANC in Ekurhuleni. It was however understood that there was some internal disagreement in the party about how to vote in Rustenburg. The AIC had one seat in the Rustenburg council, which was unlikely to sway support in favour of the ANC if all other opposition parties voted together.
The voting for mayor and speaker was done in secret, after the EFF’s request for an open vote was turned down. – News24
