South Africa

‘Strategic’ for both ANC Cape Town caucus and 2026 elections to have regional chair Ndithini Tyhido in council

4 Apr 2025

One week after a chaotic City of Cape Town meeting where ANC caucus leader Banele Majingo resigned – just before he was due to table a motion of no confidence in city council Speaker Felicity Purchase – and then joined the DA, the ANC will fill the vacancy with its regional chair in a bid not only to strengthen the caucus but also to start momentum for next year’s municipal elections.

“A strategic decision” is how the African National Congress (ANC) has described its appointment of Ndithini Tyhido as the party’s new caucus leader in the City of Cape Town.

Tyhido – the regional chair of the party’s Dullah Omar (metro) region – was officially announced on Friday, 4 April, as the ANC’s newest councillor in the city council. He will also serve as the party’s caucus leader as well as the leader of the opposition in the council.

Tyhido’s appointment comes one week after a dramatic council sitting where previous caucus leader Banele Majingo resigned from the ANC and the city council – minutes before he was due to table a motion of no confidence in Speaker Felicity Purchase of the Democratic Alliance (DA). Majingo is now a colleague of Purchase within the DA.

Read more: Cape Town politics shift: ANC’s Banele Majingo joins DA, foiling no confidence motion

Read more: Reeling from ANC leader’s ‘betrayal’, Cape Town opposition doubles down on speaker Felicity Purchase’s removal

Commenting on the latest developments on Friday, ANC Western Cape ANC provincial secretary Neville Delport said Tyhido’s appointment was discussed and approved on Thursday evening during a meeting of the provincial executive committee.

“This is a strategic decision grounded in the collective wisdom of the movement,” he said.

According to Delport, Tyhido’s mandate is clear – “to challenge the DA’s liberal, anti-poor agenda; to hold the executive to account; to demand economic justice, ensuring real [inclusion] for informal traders, the unemployed, the working class, poor”.

Delport said Tyhido would take up his position once candidate processes with the Electoral Commission of South Africa are concluded. This could be as early as next week.

The ANC is the second-biggest party in the council, having received 18.6% of votes during the last elections. This translated to 43 council seats in the metro.

When asked if Tyhido’s appointment was a sign of the party’s road to the 2026 municipal elections, provincial chair JJ Tyhalisisu said the decision to deploy Tyhido to the city caucus was “both perfect and strategic. It has come at the right time.”

Tyhalisisu pointed out that Tyhido was duly elected as the leader of the ANC in the Dulla Omar region and thus capable to lead the caucus. Tyhido was elected as chair of the region in October 2023, as Daily Maverick reported. The second reason for Tyhido’s deployment was “to align our vision towards 2026”, Tyhalisisu said.

Tyhalisisu said the ANC caucus was going to become a “campaigning caucus, not only to raise issues in the chamber”, but also in communities and on the streets.

“So this is time to deploy a leader of the ANC in the region,” he told Daily Maverick. “So whatever that happens in the council chambers will be intertwined with the work that we must do both as a region, as a province, and as branches, so there won’t be paralysis in our work.”

He added: “The roof is not falling.” The ANC in the Western Cape has been fraught with factionalism as recently as July 2024, when, as Daily Maverick reported, Tyhido was initially due to become a member of the council caucus.

For now, Tyhido and the rest of the caucus will focus on attempting to remove Purchase. “The Speaker must go,” Tyhalisisu said. DM

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