Ekurhuleni: DA’s Tania Campbell removed, AIC's Sivuyile Ngodwana elected as new mayor

 

Update: AIC councillor Sivuyile Ngodwana was elected the new Ekurhuleni mayor with 129 votes against Campbell's 75.

This comes after the ousting of the DA’s Tania Campbell as Ekurhuleni mayor on Thursday afternoon — 126 councillors of the 217 voted in support of her removal, while 91 voted to keep her as executive mayor.

The latest motion was tabled by the ANC-EFF coalition and seven other smaller parties in the Ekurhuleni Council

ActionSA was one of the political parties that voted against the motion of no confidence against Campbell even after it criticised the DA for failed leadership and called on Campbell to resign more than a month ago.

ActionSA said it voted against the motion because of its commitment to “keeping the ANC and EFF coalition out of power … as well as avoiding the installation of one-seat-party mayors who serve at the behest of the ANC and EFF as seen in the City of Johannesburg”, read the party’s press statement.

This is not the first time Campbell has been removed as mayor of Ekurhuleni. She was ousted in October 2022 in a motion proposed by ANC councillors Khehla Madlala and Dora Mlambo, only to be reinstated two weeks later after defeating the ANC’s candidate, Jongizizwe Dlabathi, in the mayoral elections.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Former Ekurhuleni Executive Mayor Tania Campbell despondent after being booted out by ‘coalition of corruption’

During the debate on the first motion of no confidence, the ANC accused Campbell of neglecting townships and failing to adequately serve the city’s communities. 

Early in 2023, ActionSA slammed Campbell and the DA for failing to lead the coalition that brought her to power, which it said had led to a decline in service delivery in Ekurhuleni.

ActionSA left the coalition government in Ekurhuleni in November 2022, allegedly because of “concerns about Mayor Campbell and her Executive’s inability to improve service delivery”. 

With the ANC and EFF holding a majority of council seats, Thursday saw Campbell removed with a majority vote. 

The ANC in Gauteng has welcomed Campbell’s removal and maintained its stance on the lack of service delivery under the DA leadership.

“Since coming into office in November 2021, the DA-led multiparty government has done nothing but reverse some of the most important work that it inherited from the ANC-led coalition government that preceded it,” said ANC Gauteng Provincial Secretary Thembinkosi “TK” Nciza.

“While the latter had adopted a pro-poor ideology that sought to improve the lives of the poor in the city, with townships and informal settlements being specifically targeted for developmental initiatives, the DA-led multiparty government had maintained the stance of hurling the poor at the margins. 

“This was evidenced in the Service Delivery Coordination reports that were tabled by the multiparty government itself, which demonstrate the deterioration of service delivery in townships and informal settlements across the metro. The removal of Tania Campbell today marks the beginning of the restrengthening of the City of Ekurhuleni and the Gauteng province broadly,” Nciza continued.

Campbell is the latest casualty of the ANC-EFF coalition campaign to remove the DA from power in Gauteng municipalities after Mpho Phalatse was removed from office in Johannesburg.

The motion against Campbell has once again raised questions about the instability of coalition governments, particularly in large metros where political parties are often said to be pursuing their own interests instead of those of their constituencies.  

Questions remain over whether the ANC-EFF partnership will lead to the election of a new mayor after Campbell was re-elected following her previous removal. DM