The political vogue of a vote of no confidence for Mayor Mxolisi Thomas Kaunda and the shenanigans of coalition politicking and free lunches is now residing at the city hall in Durban.
Hard-pressed ratepayers bodies, still seething over the splurging of R500 000 for a lunch bill for dozens of councillors and guests after councillors from major political parties failed to turn up for a special council meeting at the Durban International Convention Centre, were keeping their eyes peeled on Tuesday’s vote of no confidence, a ganging up by the smaller and opposition parties to oust under-fire mayor, Mxolisi Thomas Kaunda.
Ratepayer bodies across the Greater Durban-eThekwini Region are lobbying experts and lawyers to gauge whether the launch of a mass-based campaign for a rates and tax boycott could potentially bring the R62-billion budget eThekwini Municipality to its knees over a groundswell of service delivery woes, electricity disruptions, water shortages and spillages, waste removal go-slow tactics, declining urban environment landscapes, and eyesore sights of vagrants, beggars and homeless people.
Following the no-show meeting by the ANC majority, the fledgling Active Citizens Coalition (ACC), with two seats in the 222-member council, moved to remove the ANC mayor, who the opposition ranks blamed for the collapse of the city of and the money-spinning tourism industry that placed Durban among Africa’s hotspots along the Indian Ocean Rim.
Following the ousting of corruption-charged mayor, Zandile Gumede in 2019, Durban has descended into ground zero for ANC factional battles – especially over resources, huge budgets and the scramble for lucrative tendering of services.
ACC president and councillor, Imtiaz Sayed, tabled a question to the ANC Speaker, Thabani Nyawose to table at the meeting: “The ACC asked whether in the eThekwini Municipality you want Mxolisi Kaunda to be your mayor or not?’’ The Speaker gave the proposed motion the green light.
“We had done our background research and then lobbied the 127 councillors in the opposition seats on the vote of no confidence against the mayor,’’ said Sayed.
Of the opposition arsenal facing the mayor and the ANC is the founder-leader of Abantu Batho Congress (ABC), millionaire businessman, Philani PG Mavundla, who is gunning for the mayor after the ANC had unceremoniously ousted him as the deputy mayor – based on the coalition votes that gave Kaunda the mayoral chains – and as head of the all-powerful human settlement and infrastructure department that swung into action to fix the city’s flood-damaged infrastructure and the water quality from e-coli levels on the beachfront ahead of the festive season influx to the Golden Mile.
Mavundla supported the motion to remove Kaunda: “The Abantu Batho Congress supports the notice of motion to remove mayor Mxolisi Kaunda as a member of the Executive Committee of the eThekwini Municipality, as tabled by the Active Citizens Coalition on 25 January 2023. The motion to remove the mayor comes after a period that has been characterised by uncertainty and confusion among the people of eThekwini.’’
This was veteran ANC MPL and MEC Kaunda’s first vote of no confidence. Though he may have 97 ANC votes, the opposition mustered 127 votes; and the bloc of 100 votes between the DA, IFP and EFF and 27 ballots within the smaller parties, the ACC, ABC and Visvin Reddy’s one-man outfit could see the back of Kaunda replacing new ANC MP Sihle Zikalala as MEC for Cogta.
Opposition voices cited their anti-mayor stance to Durban’s loss of almost 60% in revenue from fresh water purchased from the Umgeni Water Board, exercabated by community complaints about water and power outages on the northern flanks, the poor coordination and management of the relocation of flood victims, and the increase in vagrancy and homelessness across the urban precincts.
Mavundla, among the chief protagonists, would support the DA’s mayoral candidate: “In the last 12 months that I was deputy mayor as well as the chairperson of the human settlements and infrastructure committee, I learned that eThekwini doesn’t have any infrastructure left. For instance, eThekwini owns 27 wastewater treatment works, of which 24 don’t have operating licenses, and 17 of them have been run to total failure. The best thing to do is to remove the leadership and put somebody else into office that may take our environment and our people more seriously.’’
The print media and social media made a meal of the collapsed meeting – heading the fiasco as “R500 000 for a meeting that lasted 40 minutes’’.
Speaker Thabani Nyawose, who cut a lone figure on the centre stage as the opposition bayed for blood for him read the riot act to the absentee ANC-coalition councillors, said the ANC was in a caucus meeting and chief whips and other councillors did not take his calls.
A meeting to oust the mayor was put on hold for an on-site special sitting after the virtual meeting on Tuesday resolved on this protocol and pre-condition to put the controversial vote of no confidence to the ballot involving all 222 councillors.
