By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The first eThekwini municipality council sitting on Monday has been chaotic as power cuts disrupted the meeting, before African National Congress (ANC) members stormed the venue.
Leader of the Democratic Alliance in eThekwini Nicole Graham wrote on Twitter: “eThekwini Council off to a slow start as the generator keeps glitching. Seems to be sorted now.”
She further accused the ANC of trying to collapse the council meeting.
The ANC has been said to be “panicking” because it looks set to lose out on electing its mayor. This after the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said it would not vote with the ruling party.
The IFP abstained on a vote to confirm the ANC’s nominee for council speaker.
Thabani Nyawose was elected the eThekwini Municipality speaker with 103 votes.
He beat challengers, Thabani Mthethwa from the DA who got 63 votes and Abantu Batho Congress’s Philani Mavundla with 33.
Following the election of Nyawose, the meeting descended into chaos with IFP councillors wanting their abstention to be noted on record.
Before the elections of mayor and deputy mayor could get underway, the IFP requested a five minutes adjournment of councillors for caucusing.
When the adjournment finished, ANC councillors suggested the council go on a lunch break much to the protestations of the opposition parties who wanted to vote immediately.
However, the council resolved to go on lunch.
According to sources, the IFP had petitioned other parties to throw their weight behind DA leader, Nicole Graham for mayor.
Numerically, if all opposition parties and independents all vote for Graham, she would finish with 121 votes and the ANC’s nominee Kaunda would have 95.