Jozini tries again to elect office bearers

KwaZulu-Natal’s Jozini Local Municipality will try again to hold a full council meeting where it will elect a mayor, deputy mayor and speaker.

Durban - KwaZulu-Natal’s Jozini Local Municipality is set yet again on Friday to attempt to hold a full council meeting where it will elect a mayor, deputy mayor and speaker.

Following the local government elections on August 3, the municipality’s council is evenly split between a coalition consisting of the African National Congress and an independent candidate and a coalition consisting of the Inkatha Freedom Party, the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters.

Each group has 20 seats in council.

Several previous attempts to hold the critical meeting that would lead to office bearers being elected have been thwarted with accusations and counter accusations.

At the last attempt, the municipal manager reportedly ran away after informing councillors that the meeting had been cancelled.

In a statement released on Thursday, the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Nomusa Dube-Ncube said: “The political deadlock that has paralysed Jozini over the past few weeks must come to an end tomorrow (Friday). The people of Jozini expect their municipality to function as it should and fulfil its constitutional mandate without further delay.”

She urged the councillors to finalise the issue of office bearers and said that no postponements would be allowed for political parties to caucus.

“Our rules for tomorrow’s (Friday’s) council sitting make no provision for further procrastination. No interruptions of tomorrow’s (Friday’s) council meeting will be tolerated, including requests for ad hoc caucus meetings by individual political parties which had previously led to repeated breakdowns in the council’s proceedings,” she said.

The Democratic Alliance’s provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango welcomed Dube-Ncube’s call for the process not too be disrupted.

“Today’s directive by MEC Dube-Ncube should be directed towards her own ANC comrades, who have been bunking council meetings, causing an unnecessary inconvenience for everyone and totally disregarding voters. COGTA and ANC Councillors have tried with all their might to fight with this process and the law,” he said.

If the number of people voting for the mayor, speaker, and deputy mayor is tied, then they should be chosen according to a coin toss, according to the law.

African News Agency