The DA’s Marlene van Staden was elected mayor of Modimolle-Mookgophong Local Municipality. Picture: Marlene Vermaak Van Staden/Facebook
Cape Town - The election of some of the country’s mayors was not a straightforward business where a party with the majority was guaranteed the position of mayor.
In Modimolle-Mookgophong local municipality it took the tossing of a coin to decide whether an ANC or DA councillor would become mayor of this Limpopo municipality.
After four previous sittings could not produce a winner because the DA, with the help of the EFF, was tied at 14 votes with the ANC, another round of voting had to be conducted.
Eventually, this week it was decided a coin needed to be tossed to break the deadlock as council had to continue its business. DA councillor Marlene van Staden was elected mayor when the odds favoured her when a coin was tossed.
It could have gone that way in Nelson Mandela Bay metro had one DA member showed up at the council meeting.
Retief Odendaal missed the meeting of the metro to elect the mayor and this led to ANC winning by one vote, 60 against 59 of the DA.
Odendaal was told not to resign his position as DA MPL in the provincial legislature in the Eastern Cape, and this led to him missing an important council meeting. His presence in the meeting would have led to a tie of 60 votes apiece between the ANC and DA.
But his absence led to the DA losing the metro by one vote.
DA mayoral candidate Refilwe N’tsheke thought the party had no chance of winning the Ekurhuleni metro from the ANC.
But the EFF’s support for the DA came as a surprise to many as it pushed the ANC out of power, and gave the seat of mayor to the DA.
Nt’sheke would have also been required to resign her position as MPL in the Gauteng provincial legislature to take up her seat in the metro council, but she decided against it.
This came as a surprise to many, least of all Tania Campbell who found herself in the mayoral seat.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Political Bureau