Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Johannesburg city council has still not begun the process of electing a new mayor.
This was as a rally of adjournments on Tuesday, by way of various caucus breaks, have put a pause on the voting process.
The EFF were the first to call for an hour’s caucus break at 10:00, just as the meeting began.
Once councillors returned to the chambers after 11:00, the ANC asked for a three-hour caucus break. News24 understands that this was due to ANC councillors disagreeing on who to support as their mayoral candidate.
This ran over the scheduled lunch break and meant that the council returned at 15:30.
Before they took the break, speaker Colleen Makhubele said that she hoped this would allow all parties to conduct caucus meetings to put an end to the continuous breaks.
She said that at the end of that break there would be a vote for a new mayor and that a new mayor would be elected on Tuesday.
Then upon returning to council, with a notable absence of the ANC councillors, the minority parties asked for an hour’s break.
News24 understands that the ANC had finally agreed on a mayoral candidate, Al Jama-ah’s Kabelo Gwamanda, but the absence of the ANC after the break seemed to suggest not all were in agreement.
The DA-led coalition appeared to be frustrated by the continuous breaks and reminded the speaker of what she said.
But Makhubele said it was a request to parties to finalise their caucus breaks, and not an instruction.
Once the minorities returned, the ANC asked for a 20-minute break. The council was due to resume after 17:00.
The DA was again putting Mpho Phalatse as their candidate, while ActionSA had proposed Funzi Ngobeni. The other proposed candidates were 25-day former mayor Dada Morero from the ANC and Margaret Arnolds from the African Independent Congress.
The city has been without a mayor for a week since Thapela Amad from Al Jamah-ah resigned after pressure within the ANC-led coalition.
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