By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
African Transformation Movement (ATM) councillor Mncedi Ndzwanana is the new speaker of the City of Tshwane council.
Ndzwanana beat ActionSA councillor Kholofelo Morodi by a considerable margin.
He received 105 votes while garnered Morodi got 37. There was a total of 69 votes deemed spoilt by the Electoral Commission of South Africa.
Speaking shortly after his election, Ndzwanana said that he wanted to introduce a culture in the Tshwane council where all councillors were councillors were treated equally despite political affiliation.
However, he said, service delivery is the priority.
“What needs to be done, from now, is to make sure the residents of Tshwane get what they deserve, what they need. They must understand and know that from now on forward, they do have a leadership that will drive services to them.”
Councillors were shocked when the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) announced that there were 69 spoilt ballots. The voting process was held by secret ballot.
The IEC said the 69 votes were declared spoilt ballots because they needed to be marked accordingly.
After the results were announced, DA, ActionSA, ACDP and FF Plus councillors stood in shock, unable to hold back their disapproval.
On the sidelines of the council meeting, DA councillor Cilliers Brink said the party took a strategic decision to mark ballots by indicating who councillors voted for.
The ballots were marked with numbers designated to each DA councillor ahead of the voting process.
Brink said the DA believed the IEC should have allowed the votes. He denied that the DA used the strategy because it did not trust its coalition partners.
A breakdown of coalition partner numbers shows the DA has 69 councillors, ActionSA 18, FF Plus 17 and the ACDP two. If the 69 votes were counted, Morodi would have won by 106 votes.