Johnathan Paoli
Ekurhuleni Mayor and African Independent Congress (AIC) member Sivuyile Ngodwana has officially been ousted following a motion of no-confidence which was tabled by ActionSA, with 47 votes for the motion and 32 against.
While the ANC and DA officially abstained from the vote on Thursday in Germiston, some ANC members and one DA member allegedly broke ranks in order to participate in the vote.
This follows ActionSA submitting a motion against Ngodwana and his government in the midst of a severe financial and service delivery crisis in Ekurhuleni, and said it appealed to other political parties in the metro to put aside their differences and remove what was clearly a poorly conceived compromise government between the ANC and the EFF.
ActionSA Ekurhuleni Caucus Leader Siyanda Makhubo commended the 25 ANC councilors and lone DA councilor who supported the motion and said although they went against their party mandates, they did it in service of the residents of the metropolitan.
“Ngodwana will be remembered as the minority puppet Mayor in Ekurhuleni who failed to hold his EFF MMC’s to account, especially his finance MMC, Dunga, whose reign of terror over the finance department in Ekurhuleni left the City on the brink of being placed under administration,” Makhubo said.
The caucus leader said that the City’s finances needed to be stabilised, the institutional review rapidly implemented, and quality services delivered to residents as soon as possible, thus requiring a stable government based on competence as opposed to political expediency.
“The EFF in government have been a disaster class in public administration and their inability to separate party and state represents a very real threat to democratic norms and principles which govern our local municipalities,” Makhubo said.
Makhubo said the party is looking forward to political change that will begin fixing the mess the ANC/EFF coalition created in Ekurhuleni.
Despite initial support from the ruling party, which elected Ngodwana to the position, Ekurhuleni ANC have previously expressed their unhappiness with his leadership, even accusing him of allowing financial misconduct to thrive.
In the last few months, Ngodwana survived three attempts to boot him from the mayoral office.
Council Speaker, Nthabiseng Tshivhenga, is also set to face a motion of no- confidence brought by the DA who said they want the Speaker removed from the position as she was allegedly protecting her fellow EFF councilors.
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