Another slap in the face for EFF in Ekurhuleni, but analyst says ANC will need red berets

City of Ekurhuleni mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza. Picture: Gallo Images Tensions are deepening between the ANC and EFF in Gauteng, as Ekurhuleni mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza snubbed the EFF, leaving them completely out of his mayoral committee. On Wednesday evening, Xhakaza filled the three posts in the mayoral committee that were rejected by the EFF and ActionSA.

Now the mayoral committee is made up of a majority of ANC councillors and some from smaller parties. He appointed Nkgopotse Nsizwa Mekgwe to the portfolio of Human Settlements, Siyabonga Mathews Moloi to the portfolio of Community Services, and Dora Mlambo to the portfolio of Economic Infrastructure and Development. They are all from the ANC.

The mayor’s spokesperson, Ramatolo Tlotleng, said the mayor has expressed full confidence in the appointed MMCs and has called on them to discharge their responsibilities with diligence, integrity and an unwavering commitment to serve the people of the city. “These appointments reinforce the City’s governance capacity by ensuring that all portfolios are fully constituted, enabling accelerated service delivery, strengthened oversight, and enhanced accountability to residents,” said Tlotleng. Meanwhile, the City of Ekurhuleni is expected to also hold an extraordinary council sitting soon to elect a speaker of the council.

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The municipality has not had a speaker of council since Nthabiseng Tshivhenga, of the EFF, resigned late last year. The EFF’s provincial chairperson in Gauteng, Nkululeko Dunga, says these changes to the mayoral committee will not contribute to service delivery. He bemoanedthemayor’s removal of “award-winning” EFF mayoral committee members.

“To make such drastic changes, hours before the council is due to vote for the adjusted budget in the city reveals the character of a mayor who is unperturbed by the lived reality of thousands in the City of Ekurhuleni and whose sole interest and mandate is to demonstrate a self-professed sense of power and invincibility at the expense of a stable and functioning municipality,” he said. Theo Neethling, a political analyst from the University of Free State (UFS), toldThe Citizenthat developments between the ANC and EFF in Ekurhuleni could also disturb relations between the ANC and the EFF at a provincial level and possibly, in other municipalities where the ANC needs the EFF to govern.

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