Johnathan Paoli
THE ANC caucus in Ekurhuleni has officially expressed its willingness to dispense with the coalition government with its current partner the EFF.
The ruling party’s regional task team gave a media briefing on Tuesday and reported that it is willing to ditch its coalition pact with the EFF saying it can no longer work with the party that it accuses of running the municipality to the ground.
Exactly a year ago the two organisations formed an alliance to govern the city which saw the AIC leader Sivuyile Ngodwana being elected as mayor, however, the parties are not seeing eye-to-eye on several matters presented in council, including the motion of no confidence against the Ekurhuleni Mayor, which the ANC supports.
ANC Ekurhuleni Regional Task Team Coordinator Jogizizwe Dlabithi said recent developments necessitate the reconfiguration of the city’s government, following a violent brawl involving EFF and ANC councilors which broke out last Thursday – seemingly the turning point for the alliance.
It is understood that the ANC’s regional caucus wanted out of the coalition for months but was forced to rub shoulders with the EFF by its provincial principals.
However, Dlabathi said his party can’t collude with the EFF to further run the city into disarray.
“If it means staying in opposition and exercising oversight, then so be it. We have done it any case but what we are not going to do it to stay for the sake of staying,” he said
Dlabathi insisted that the ANC’s relationship with the EFF has barely yielded the desired outcomes and that the ruling party wants out of the coalition government with the “unruly” EFF in Ekurhuleni, saying the city needed a reconfiguration of political leadership to salvage it from further regression.
“The ANC is firmly of the view that the current state of the City does necessitate the reconfiguration of political leadership, as we said, to salvage the City from further regression,” Dlabathi said, adding that this must be done for the sole purpose of serving communities better and to improve the quality of life through the right caliber of leadership.
The ANC and EFF, who are in coalition in the metro, have been at loggerheads for a while now on who should have the upper hand in running the city.
This was as the motion for a vote of no confidence against Ekurhuleni Mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana was being tabled. The incident resulted in Ngodwana’s phone being snatched during the brawl, but it has since been found.
The mayor is accused of failing to deliver services to the people of Ekurhuleni, and during the briefing, Dlabathi said the ANC was prepared for any eventuality, but will not be part of a collaborative arrangement that was not helpful in taking forward the programme of a better life for all.
“It is not about the positions, nor the perks of governance, but our commitment to building better communities,” he said.
The coordinator said that the culture of bullying and disrupting the council must come to an end, adding that they believed in robust debates, order and decorum as well as tolerance, and expressed disappointment in the Speaker of council, Nthabiseng Tshivhenga, for not doing enough to use the authority and the responsibility of maintaining and preserving order in council, against gross disorderly conduct.
“We implore the Speaker to ensure the resumption of the adjourned council soon, if not, we will direct the ANC councilors to use available provision to compel the Speaker to convene,” he said.
Furthermore, he said the leadership of the ANC in the region will be engaged in a series of public engagements, starting with the community of Tembisa, in an attempt to address service delivery challenges, including credit control, debt write-offs and unlocking of the indigent bottleneck.
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