Pretoria - In a surprise move yesterday, Tshwane council speaker Dr Murunwa Makwarela was elected the new executive mayor, beating coalition partners candidate, former DA MP Cilliers Brink.
Makwarela secured 112 votes, with Brink bagging 101.
The sole councillor of the Cope in the metro went head to head with Brink in a fierce contest for the successor to Randall Williams.
This was during a special council sitting at Tshwane House, where Makwarela’s nomination was supported by both the ANC and EFF while Brink was backed by multiparty coalition partners, including the ACDP, IFP, ActionSA and Freedom Front Plus.
Makwarela’s contest against Brink was despite the fact that he last week pledged his support to him as mayoral candidate.
The emotionally-charged voting took place by means of a secret ballot, with at least 213 councillors taking part in the election process under the watch of the Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC).
Before the voting, the ANC and EFF cast aspersion on the presence of Brink as a councillor. They claimed there was was no proof that he was duly sworn-in as a councillor.
They demanded that he be ejected from the council chamber until the speaker could furnish them with proof that he was duly sworn-in as one of them.
Parties also expressed doubts that Brink, who was a DA MP, had not yet resigned from Parliament at the time he was addressing the media on February 22.
Brink was accused of having used municipal resources during a recent media briefing at Tshwane House despite that he was not yet officially admitted as a councillor.
In responding to the issues, Makwarela said a letter from the IEC showed that Brink had been a councillor with effect from February 23.
EFF regional leader Obakeng Ramabodu said Brink addressed (a gathering) on February 22 with the corporate logo of the municipality and using the municipal platform.
Makwarela was asked to allow council to refer Brink for an investigation by Section 79 rules and ethics committee for his conduct in using municipal branding.
In the middle of the voting proceeding, ANC regional chairperson Eugene Modise cautioned IEC officials that they ought to guard against councillors who didn’t conceal their ballots after making their mark.
As Makwarela stood up to cast his ballot others within the multiparty coalition labelled him “Judas” for betraying trust of the coalition partners, after he failed to honour his pledge to support Brink as one of the coalition partners.
In an attempt to calm down emotions, an IEC official at the podium pleaded: “Can we allow voting to take place without intimidation?”
Last week, Makwarela dismissed suggestions that he was vying to become the next mayor, saying such a position was reserved for the DA according to the multiparty coalition agreement.
Despite publicly declaring his support for Brink, coalition partners accused him of having aligned himself with both the ANC and EFF in an effort to be elected as mayor.
His accusers had a go at him for refusing to call an urgent council meeting to elect a new mayor before yesterday’s sitting despite most of the councillors having petitioned him to do so.
They decried the fact that the election of a new mayor on February 28 would deprive the City of passing of the adjustment budget as the legislated deadline was the same day.
Council deputy chief whip Katlego Makgaleng made an attempt – in vain – to call for Makwarela to resign as a speaker after he accepted the nomination, saying that a councillor may not hold two positions in terms of the council rules.
He asked municipal manager Johann Mettler, who had already taken over, to preside over council before handing over the proceedings to the IEC, to recuse himself from the podium and allow the acting speaker to take charge.
Mettler, however, objected to a request by Makgaleng that there was a conflict of interest, saying that was not the case because there had not been an election yet.
Earlier on, ANC council chief whip Aaron Maluleka asked that all the former MMCs be referred to the rules and ethics committee for using municipal resources while they were no longer MMCs after Williams’ dramatic resignation on February 13 with immediate effect.
The mayoral committee, according to the law, is dissolved after the mayor had resigned.
However, the committee continued to work after Williams subsequently amended his date of resignation to February 28, causing confusion regarding which of the two letters was valid.
The City sought legal advice, which nullified his second letter of resignation.
There was also a call that they must pay back the money and that it must be docked from their salaries in March.
Brink, who is former Tshwane councillor and MMC for corporate and shared services, had expressed confidence that he would emerge as the mayor.
He said: “The benefit that we have in the City of Tshwane is that this coalition has a 50+2 majority. We have got a solid majority in council, which is what we lacked in Joburg and what we still lack in Ekurhuleni. We also have a unity of purpose.
This coalition and the parties that formed partners of it do not have partners that run through the DA, ANC and different parties in order to negotiate for better positions. We must make use of that advantage.”
Meanwhile, the SA Municipal Workers Union said: “As workers we wish the new executive mayor well in his responsibilities. We (are) also calling on political parties represented in council to put aside their political differences and focus on restoring glory days of the City of Tshwane.”
Pretoria News