Five caucus breaks in seven hours, delays, thumb-twiddling inside the chamber and then an adjournment for a special council sitting convened to elect a new Johannesburg mayor.
These were the events that punctuated yesterday's City of Johannesburg council meeting which ended in a postponement to Friday for another attempt to find a replacement for former mayor Thapelo Amad.
Inside the council chambers, councillors were playing cat-and-mouse games with unending calls for caucus breaks which began soon after 10am.
The EFF was the first to call for a break soon after council speaker Colleen Makhubele took her seat, with the party requesting an hour for a caucus before the only item on the council agenda could be discussed. This was followed by a brief adjournment after Makhubele acceded to the request. ANC and EFF councillors walked out of council together into the courtyard where they appeared to be having their own discussions.
When the time lapsed they returned, but only for the ANC to request another 3-hour caucus break before midday. During the period of the lengthy break, ANC and EFF councillors converged in the courtyard again for more discussions.
Inside the deserted chambers, some DA and ActionSA councillors sat apart twiddling their thumbs with no visible discussion underway.
Shortly after 3.45pm council resumed, but it was now the turn of the ATM to also request Makhubele for a 1-hour caucus break. Despite Makhubele initially saying no more caucus breaks would be permitted, she caved in to ATM's request for another hour. She had vowed that a new mayor would be elected before the end of the day.
EFF caucus leader Sepetlele Raseruthe, PA's Kenny Kunene, AIC's Margaret Arnolds and Al-Jama-ah mayoral candidate Kabelo Gwamanda walked out together before disappearing into one of the elevators.
A couple of minutes later, Kunene, Raseruthe, ANC caucus leader Dada Morero and ANC Gauteng chairperson Panyaza Lesufi were spotted in the courtyard less than 100m from the council chambers, having a discussion and whispering to one another.
Kunene later said the caucus breaks were a result of the ANC being undecided on a candidate to field for the mayoral position.
“The ANC is not agreeing on a candidate. As the minority parties, we have agreed that we will support any candidate that is presented by the ANC. The ANC is divided and cannot find each other on one candidate. It looks like they have more than one candidate. We are trying to push them to agree on one candidate,” said Kunene.
He did not want to reveal the names of the candidates the ANC was undecided on.
Al-Jama-ah was the last party to make a request for another caucus break, but the request was declined by Makhubele, who adjourned the sitting to Friday.
An ANC councillor was heard saying groupings in the party are divided: one is backing Gwamanda while another wants Makhubele as mayor.
The DA will field Phalatse as its mayoral candidate.
ActionSA, IFP, ACDP, FF+ and UIM coalition will field ActionSA Gauteng leader Funzi Ngobeni when the meeting resumes on Friday.
kokam@sowetan.co.za
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