Africa-Press – South-Africa. Some ANC councillors in the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality on Wednesday failed to toe the party line when they voted for DA councillor Maryke Davies as the new speaker of the municipality.
The deep divisions within the ANC in the province were on full display when, with the 51 councillors the party has in the council, only 40 are believed to have voted for ANC candidate Lawrence Mathae.
On Tuesday, Mathae was sworn in, having been imposed by the provincial leadership.
The ANC enjoys a clear majority with 51 seats compared to the DA’s 26 and the EFF’s 12.
The FF Plus has five and Patriotic Alliance two, while the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats, African Independent Congress, African Christian Democratic Party and African Transformation Movement all have one seat each.
Mathae is the ANC’s Mangaung regional chairperson, and party insiders said the provincial leadership believed his inclusion in the ailing municipality would lead to its revival.
ANC veteran Gregory Nthatisi was also sworn in on Tuesday as a new councillor and is earmarked as the party’s mayoral candidate, having received the blessing of the party’s top officials in the province.
This after the resignation of Mxolisi Siyonzana last month after he was recalled by the party.
The troubled Mangaung metro has been operating without permanent administrative and political leadership since Siyonzana’s resignation and that of the speaker of the council, Stefanie Lockman-Naidoo, who also threw in the towel more than two weeks ago.
During the council sitting on Wednesday, Davies, whose party only has 26 seats in the ANC-dominated council, was elected by a majority vote of 53 out of 93 valid votes.
The ANC national leadership has been at loggerheads with the provincial Free State leadership over the state of the province’s municipalities.
Former premier Sisi Ntombela was requested to step aside by the ANC leadership who, among others, cited the poor performance of most of the municipalities in the province under her leadership.
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