eThekwini ANC deputy chairperson Tembo Ntuli and its deputy secretary, Nkosenhle Madlala, are quietly battling it out to replace ousted Durban deputy mayor Philani Mavundla later this month.
But ongoing discussions between the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) — who are not in coalition with the governing party but voted for Mavundla’s removal in a no-confidence motion in December — may stymie both men’s ambitions.
The council is set to vote on a replacement for Mavundla, the leader of the Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) — who chaired the city’s crucial human settlements and infrastructure cluster tasked with rebuilding municipal resources destroyed in the floods last April — on 26 January.
Despite being central to the ANC maintaining control of the city in the mayoral elections early last year, Mavundla was told to resign from the deputy mayor’s position he received in return for his support by the governing party before the year was out.
The ANC then carried a vote in the council to remove Mavundla, who approached the high court for an order nullifying the meeting at which he was deposed.
His court action failed and the ABC last week issued a statement stating that he would return to the eThekwini council chamber as a proportional representation councillor.
Mavundla’s removal has been widely criticised because he had been central to efforts to repair Durban’s sewage pump stations and pipelines, the failure of which had closed the city’s beaches for months.
Nine stations remained closed during the December and January tourist season, which the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry this week described as “less favourable than anticipated”.
The city has also been plagued by water outages and other service delivery backlogs, while an estimated 300 000 street lights remain out of service because of ongoing conflicts with council staff over the city’s bloated overtime bill.
With Mavundla out of office, Madlala, who chairs the governance and human capital cluster and who acted as mayor during the festive season, had been seen as a shoo in for the post as he was already a member of the city’s executive committee.
But Ntuli, who has been acting as regional chair because the step-aside rule was applied to corruption-accused Zandile Gumede, was moved to the city’s executive committee last month, placing him in the running for the deputy mayor’s post.
The ANC lost its outright majority in the city in the November 2021 local government elections, taking 95 seats, and required 18 votes from smaller parties — including Mavundla’s — to win the vote for mayor, deputy and speaker in January this year.
But Mavundla fell foul of the ANC, who brought the motion to oust him in December with the support of the EFF, whose councillor, Thamsanqa Xuma, was elected to the city’s powerful Municipal Public Accounts Committee, and other smaller parties.
ANC sources in the province and the eThekwini region said discussions about a suitable candidate to replace Mavundla were still taking place.
There were also likely to be further discussions with the EFF, which is understood to be considering taking the deputy mayor’s post in eThekwini in return for backing the ANC in a number of rural municipalities in the province run by an Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and EFF coalition.
One source in the region said that Ntuli, Madlala and councillor Zama Sokhabase, a long-standing ally of Gumede and a senior ANC councillor, had been put forward to the province.
“There is nothing final as yet,” the source said. “Madlala, Tembo and Sokhabase are the three names that are being considered. “
The source said that giving the post to the EFF would be in return for their support in dislodging the IFP from control of 15 of the province’s 17 hung municipalities, including rural towns such as Dannhauser, uMhlathuze and Newcastle.
“This [the eThekwini process] will largely be driven from the provincial executive committee [PEC] side, since there are other municipalities that we could swing in other areas,” the source said.
ANC KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson Mafika Mndebele said the province’s deployment committee would meet ahead of the council meeting to decide on who to nominate to replace Mavundla from a list of three names put forward by the region.
Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader Thabani Mthethwa said the removal of Mavundla had created a crisis as it set back efforts to rebuild roads, bridges and sewerage plants destroyed in the floods last April.
“Without a political head, that cluster is severely compromised,” Mthethwa said.
Mthethwa said the DA would be talking to other parties, including the ABC, about backing a candidate to contest the deputy mayor’s post.
The DA had backed the IFP’s Mdu Nkosi as deputy mayor against Mavundla, who won by a narrow margin.
“As the second biggest party in the city, we cannot leave things to other parties. We have to lead. We will be engaging other political parties as to how best we could work together and as to whether we contest,” Mthethwa said.
Asked if the DA would approach Mavundla — who had first backed an opposition coalition in the council but had voted for ANC candidates in return for the deputy mayor’s position — for support, he said “of course”.
“We already said he must come back to the opposition benches and work to strengthen the opposition in eThekwini. We are engaging all those parties [who had dumped the opposition coalition for the ANC]. We believe the priority is not to be in council, but to make sure that we can take control of the city,” Mthethwa said.
Madlala said he had “no idea” when a new deputy mayor would be elected or who the ANC would nominate.
“eThekwini is a metro and as such the deployment of the mayor, deputy mayor and speaker is a function of the national office. However, the province will be allowed to dictate those names. As the region, we are subjects of this and we cannot speak on the matter ourselves,” he said.
EFF eThekwini leader Themba Mvubu said he was not aware of any discussions between the parties.
While the political manoeuvring continues, both the local business chamber and the hospitality industry have called on the city to urgently address its failure to deliver basic services and to keep the beaches swimmable.
Prasheen Maharaj, president of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said the city was still battling to get over the Covid-19 lockdown, the 2021 riots and the floods last April and May.
“This has had a negative impact on our city as an attractive tourist destination, and we have felt and seen it,” Maharaj said.
The municipality had claimed more than 500 000 beachgoers over the festive season, but the chamber “believes the 2022 festive season was less favourable than anticipated”.
“The current state of our beaches, water disruptions, load-shedding and sewage spills are threatening the profitability of the hospitality sector. The uMhlanga promenade, for example, is a key tourist attraction and is home to major hotel groups. However, the sewage smell on parts of the promenade is unhygienic and serves [as] a huge deterrent for visitors,” Maharaj said.
Organised business believed the city needed to start addressing its infrastructure problems now if it were to ensure a bumper 2023 festive season.
In addition to restoring key infrastructure, including water and sanitation works, the city needed to guarantee the opening of the beaches and develop and drive an aggressive marketing strategy to position Durban favourably with tourists.
Brett Tungay, a board member of the Federated Hospitality Association of South Africa, said the body’s hoteliers and resort owners had done “better than anticipated” over the festive season.
“We don’t have figures yet, but from talking to members in the hospitality industry, most had a better season than anticipated. It didn’t go too badly, in spite of the best effort of the city to kill the season,” Tungay said.
“We are now going into a quieter period where visitors are more retirees and richer individuals who are more discerning — and have more voice — so this is the period when the industry is going to feel it. Now we need to see what the municipality is going to do; it’s not as if any of the issues that existed going into the season are resolved.”
