The DA's Refiloe Nt'sekhe has dismissed claims she absconded from the Ekurhuleni council meeting at which a new mayor was to be elected in a day that was full of drama.
Nt'sekhe also accused the ANC of playing political games after failing to process her resignation as a councillor two weeks ago.
This comes after it was announced during yesterday's Ekurhuleni council meeting that Nt’sekhe was no longer available to contest the mayoral election as a DA candidate, with council officials saying she was the only councillor marked as absent in the attendance register.
Speaking to Sowetan sister publication TimesLIVE during a short recess, Nt’sekhe denied allegations that she had left the DA, and that she was absent, as alluded to by the council. She said she withdrew her councillor candidacy on November 8.
“I am here, as you can see, to support the DA caucus of Ekurhuleni fully. I am 100% behind my team and still serving as deputy federal chairperson as well.”
Nt'sekhe's withdrawal has been met with much speculation, with some suggesting that she was “used” by the party to secure black votes.
“On the 8th of November, I submitted my resignation to the DA provincial structures indicating that because the numbers were not looking positive, I would release myself from my seat as a councillor and continue to serve Ekurhuleni from my position as Gauteng legislature member.
“Clearly what has happened today is that the ANC has decided to use this as a political ploy and [they] have not processed the resignation, therefore also using the racial narrative, which is actually quite wrong.”
She maintained that there had been nothing untoward with her withdrawal, arguing it was purely on the basis of low electoral support. The metro is one of the 61 that was declared hung after there was no outright winner. The ANC received 38.19% of votes, followed by the DA with 28.72% and the EFF with 13.47%.
DA councillors who spoke to Sowetan said: "No-one anticipated that things would turn out the way they did. We needed someone that the electorate could relate to and she was that person. She withdrew earlier as no- one anticipated that things would turn out the way they did today.” The DA councillors did not wish to be named.
At lunchtime, a total of 224 councillors had been sworn in.
Meanwhile, drama unfolded later in the day as the DA and the ANC battled it out for the control of Ekurhuleni.
The ANC nominated former mayor Mzwandile Masina to retain his position and the DA nominated Tania Campbell to head the executive of the council.
Campbell’s emergence in the nomination process came after Nt’sekhe’s withdrawal as a councillor.
The ANC suffered its first defeat when DA nominee Raymond Dlamini was elected as speaker of council. This meant that the EFF and ActionSA, who were in third and fourth position in terms of votes after the election, voted together to give victory to the DA. Dlamini received 116 votes compared to the ANC’s Dorah Mlambo’s 104.
After the loss, the ANC held a caucus meeting. Coming back from the lunch break, ANC councillors were singing struggle songs like Yimbi lendawo.
As the voting process began for the mayor began late in the evening, one of the Electoral Commission (IEC) officials spotted an EFF councillor taking a picture of his ballot paper and raised tyhe alarm.
Confrontation began as one EFF party representative charged at the IEC woman for obstructing the voting process. Other councillors from the ANC and EFF joined in, shouting at each other, forcing Dlamini to stop the voting process.
“I will watch the video to see what actually happened and make a ruling at the next council meeting,” Dlamini ruled.
At the end of all the fracas, the DA’s Tania Campbell was voted the new mayor of the City of Ekurhuleni. Campbell defeated Masina with 116 votes to 105.
Campbell’s victory was the second blow to the ANC after losing the position of speaker to Dlamini.
The ANC has been running Ekurhuleni and punted it as the jewel in its crown as it achieved unqualified audits for successive years and a clean audit opinion in the final year of the outgoing administration.
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