Buffalo City Mayor Zukiswa Ncitha failed spectacularly in her fourth bid yesterday to topple municipal manager Andile Fani.Wednesday’s city council meeting to admit her report advocating Fani’s suspension collapsed when 19 DA councillors walked out and the ANC caucus publicly disagreed.
Fani was given a 48-hour reprieve until noon yesterday.
The meeting started at 1pm, but seemed fated for failure when all the opposition councillors suddenly streamed out of the Imbizo room at the East London ICC and went and held a multi-party caucus.
The opposition went back into the meeting, but within minutes exploded out of the doors and streamed away from the centre.
They said they left only 43 councillors inside – eight short of the required quorum of 51 out of 100 councillors. COPE’s Khayalethu Twalingca said: “COPE is leaving. This issue is in court. We cannot discuss it here.”
DA BCM caucus chairman Jan Smit said: “They will probably adjourn to try and phone their people .”
Lunch was called, during which time the mayor tightened security in the conference room.
When a reporter entered the chamber during adjournment, she called out to some of the six BCM law-enforcement guards hanging around in the foyer: “No entry! Not at all!”
Councillors were seen drifting back in dribs and drabs.
The only councillor seen coming in through the front door was finance portfolio committee chairman, alderman John Badenhorst, who had earlier left to go and see a doctor.
The afternoon dragged on and after attorney Mathew Moodley was called in to address the meeting on the quorum, it seemed that the numbers had fallen even lower.
Even if only 43 ANC members remained, this figure meant that at least 28 ANC councillors had not attended the council meeting.
The afternoon dragged on and suddenly word was that the meeting had morphed into an ANC “caucus”.
Top city officials were called into the room, and it finally ended just before 4pm.
Inside the room, Ncitha was in a cluster with mainly women councillors, including her Mandela fraud trial co-accused, Sindiswe Gomba. She referred the reporter to another co-accused, speaker Luleka Simon-Ndzele, who refused to comment on the collapse of the quorum.
She said that the meeting had “adjourned” until yesterday.
With the mayor by her side, Simon-Ndzele continued to insist that the item was “strictly confidential”.
Outside the hotel, about 30 Saamwu workers bayed for the mayor’s resignation, claiming she had brought embarrassment to the office.
DA councillor Sue Bentley said service delivery was being affected by the Fani-Ncitha fight and had cost ratepayers “hundreds of thousands of rands”.
He said aborted or adjourned meetings cost ratepayers approximately R65000 per meeting.
Should the mayor’s faction succeed in suspending Fani, the amount would be much higher with “further court cases”.
Ncitha fails to get rid of Fani
Fani was given a 48-hour reprieve until noon yesterday.
The meeting started at 1pm, but seemed fated for failure when all the opposition councillors suddenly streamed out of the Imbizo room at the East London ICC and went and held a multi-party caucus.
The opposition went back into the meeting, but within minutes exploded out of the doors and streamed away from the centre.
They said they left only 43 councillors inside – eight short of the required quorum of 51 out of 100 councillors. COPE’s Khayalethu Twalingca said: “COPE is leaving. This issue is in court. We cannot discuss it here.”
DA BCM caucus chairman Jan Smit said: “They will probably adjourn to try and phone their people .”
Lunch was called, during which time the mayor tightened security in the conference room.
When a reporter entered the chamber during adjournment, she called out to some of the six BCM law-enforcement guards hanging around in the foyer: “No entry! Not at all!”
Councillors were seen drifting back in dribs and drabs.
The only councillor seen coming in through the front door was finance portfolio committee chairman, alderman John Badenhorst, who had earlier left to go and see a doctor.
The afternoon dragged on and after attorney Mathew Moodley was called in to address the meeting on the quorum, it seemed that the numbers had fallen even lower.
Even if only 43 ANC members remained, this figure meant that at least 28 ANC councillors had not attended the council meeting.
The afternoon dragged on and suddenly word was that the meeting had morphed into an ANC “caucus”.
Top city officials were called into the room, and it finally ended just before 4pm.
Inside the room, Ncitha was in a cluster with mainly women councillors, including her Mandela fraud trial co-accused, Sindiswe Gomba. She referred the reporter to another co-accused, speaker Luleka Simon-Ndzele, who refused to comment on the collapse of the quorum.
She said that the meeting had “adjourned” until yesterday.
With the mayor by her side, Simon-Ndzele continued to insist that the item was “strictly confidential”.
Outside the hotel, about 30 Saamwu workers bayed for the mayor’s resignation, claiming she had brought embarrassment to the office.
DA councillor Sue Bentley said service delivery was being affected by the Fani-Ncitha fight and had cost ratepayers “hundreds of thousands of rands”.
He said aborted or adjourned meetings cost ratepayers approximately R65000 per meeting.
Should the mayor’s faction succeed in suspending Fani, the amount would be much higher with “further court cases”.
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