Sivuyile Ngodwana Ekurhuleni mayor and African Independent Congress (AIC) member has been ousted by the city council through a vote of no confidence on Thursday.
Forty-seven councillors voted for his removal from the mayoral office while 32 backed him.
ActionSA caucus leader Siyanda Makhubo said he was pleased that the “puppet Mayor ”Ngodwana, was successfully removed as the city mayor.
Makhubo said he commended the 25 ANC councillors and the lone DA councillor who went against their party mandates in service of the residents of the metro.
“ActionSA submitted a motion against Ngodwana and his government in the midst of a severe financial and service delivery crisis in Ekurhuleni. We appealed to other political parties in Ekurhuleni to put aside their differences and remove what was clearly a poorly conceived compromise government between the ANC & EFF.
“Ngodwana will be remembered as the minority puppet Mayor in Ekurhuleni who failed to hold his EFF MMC's to account, especially his finance MMC, Clir Dunga, whose reign of terror over the finance department in Ekurhuleni left the City on the brink of being placed under administration.
“ActionSA insists that the City's finances need to be stabilised, the institutional review rapidly implemented, and quality services delivered to our residents as soon as possible.
This will require a stable government based on competence as opposed to political expedience,” He added.
Makhubo said the EFF has been a disaster at the helm, saying that their inability to separate party and state represented a very real threat to democratic norms and principles which govern the local municipalities.
Furthermore, he said his organisation was looking forward to a political change that would begin fixing the” mess” the ANC/EFF coalition created in Ekurhuleni.
The publications attempt to get comment from the ANC and EFF were unsuccessful at the time of print.
The ANC was in high spirits in council on Thursday afternoon, as its long wish of removing Ngodwana from the city’s top office finally came to pass.
The party has been unhappy with the former mayor’s leadership, going as far as accusing him of allowing financial misconduct to thrive.
Earlier on it was reported that the Provincial Chairperson Panyaza Lesufi urged the ANC caucus to abstain from the vote as some believed that he had a deal with the EFF.
Meanwhile, council Speaker, Nthabiseng Tshivhenga, is also set to face a motion of no confidence on Thursday afternoon.
The DA wants the Speaker removed from the position as it believes she’s protecting her fellow EFF councillors.
Saturday Star