By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
A special council meeting was convened in Tshwane on Tuesday to elect a new mayor following the resignation former mayor Randall Williams.
Williams resigned as Tshwane mayor on 13 February, causing much confusion, and leading to MMCs remaining in their roles despite a legal opinion stating the political positions were dissolved once he had resigned.
The MMCs remaining in office meant they were paid their salaries in addition to their mayoral committee roles.
Democratic Alliance’s councillor Cilliers Brink, tipped to be the next mayor to succeed Williams, was welcomed by council speaker Murunwa Makwarela but to much disapproval.
EFF caucus leader Obakeng Ramabodu questioned when Brink would be sworn in as a councillor, which led to Tuesday morning’s proceedings being delayed.
Brink was confirmed as a councillor on 23 February in a letter from the Electoral Commission of South Africa, replacing DA councillor Sean Cox who resigned.
Makwarela distanced himself from the chaos, saying Brink’s membership of the council was gazetted by the office of the city manager.
ANC councillor Aaron Maluleka was concerned about how quickly it took to introduce Brink into the chambers, saying when the ANC sought to replace a councillor the process took two weeks, yet when the DA wanted to bring in Brink it only took two days.
However Makwarela was nominated from the floor by ANC councillors to contest Brink. He accepted the nomination leading to a vote.
Makwarela is a COPE councillor and was elected as Speaker through the DA coalition partnership ticket.
Last week the governing coalition partners — the DA, Freedom Front Plus, ActionSA, ACDP and IFP — had a fallout with speaker Makwarela from COPE. The coalition partners threatened to table a motion of no confidence in Makwarela after he did not allow an urgent mayoral election special council meeting to urgently elect a new mayor, arguing the IEC would not be ready to hold an election.