By Lehlohonolo Lehana
African National Congress (ANC’s) Mxolisi Siyonzana has been re-elected as the mayor of Mangaung Metro. Siyonzana won by 56 votes against the Democratic Alliance (DA’s) Johan Pretorius who secured 29 votes and Afrikan Alliance Social Democrats leader Papi Mokoena who scored 15 votes.
This means that five councillors from other political parties voted with the ANC to elect Siyonzana as the mayor. Meanwhile, the ANC’s speaker candidate, Stephani Lockman, was earlier elected as the new speaker of the metro.
Lochman has been voted as speaker with 55 votes. All 101 councillors of the newly-composed Mangaung Metro council have been sworn in. There was strong police presence outside the hall, following threats of disruptions by civic organisations opposed to the ANC mayoral candidate.
In total, 84 votes were cast by various councillors, with 51 of the ANC who voted for Lockman, which means 3 other councillors also voted with the ANC.
The ruling ANC retained the metro with a margin of 50,63% and this gave them 51 seats in the council.
Siyonzana was nominated by the ANC’s National Executive Committee (NEC). This follows the taunting of ANC Women’s League (ANCWL) Mapaseka Mothibi-Nkoane’s name as the preferred candidate for the mayoral position. But her name was seemingly rejected by the NEC who instead opted for Siyonzana.