Ousted Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell of the Democratic Alliance (DA) has accepted her loss by a mere seven votes after she was removed at a council sitting on Wednesday in Germiston.
After a motion of no confidence against her passed with 100 votes versus 93, Campbell said the DA had readied itself to be a good opposition party, although it was “disappointed that the coalition of corruption succeeded in bringing an end to the good work” of the multi-party coalition.
Campbell was the head of the DA-led coalition after local government elections in November last year, in which no party reached the required 113 seats needed to form a government outright in the 224-seat Ekurhuleni council.
The ANC has 86 council seats, the DA 65, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) 31 and ActionSA, which contested its first elections last year, garnered 15 seats. The EFF abstained from voting in Wednesday’s motion.
Said Campbell after her ousting: “We accept that we have an equally important role to play from the opposition benches. The residents of this great city deserve nothing less, and we will not give up the fight.”
She listed a string of what she said were the achievements her administration had achieved in less than a year in charge, including early childhood development centres in the townships of Katlehong and Vosloorus, as well as the electrification of 1 367 households.
“This government has had a positive impact on the lives of those whom we were elected to serve, residents of Ekurhuleni,” a dejected Campbell said.
“Every one of the parties represented in the multi-party coalition has served diligently and carried out their responsibilities for the betterment of the residents of Ekurhuleni. They conducted themselves with the humility befitting of elected office bearers.”
Gauteng ANC chairperson Panyaza Lesufi said the victory was nothing to celebrate as Ekurhuleni’s finances were in a shambles.
“We [the ANC] have to go there and close those potholes. We have to go there and ensure that there is reliable electricity, refuse removal and many other things that the people of Ekurhuleni are complaining about,” Lesufi said on news channel Newzroom Afrika.
“But the vote of confidence from the minority parties to work with the ANC is not only humbling, but is a [sign] that the renewal agenda of the ANC in this particular province is supported by people within the ANC and outside the ANC.”
Speaker Raymond Dhlamini, who is also from the DA, said he would schedule a sitting to vote in a new mayor, who is expected to be from the ANC. The party’s leader in council and in the Ekurhuleni region is former mayor Mzwandile Masina, who is expected to return to the city’s top seat following a 10-month hiatus.
