Durban - The EFF in eThekwini has blamed the “arrogance” of the smaller parties for the failure of the motion of no confidence which was aimed at ousting eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda last week.
The party said the smaller parties that brought the motion had failed to consult the EFF on their motion and had not formulated a succession plan on who would replace Kaunda once he was removed.
The EFF was one of the parties that blocked Kaunda’s removal by voting against the motion filed by Active Citizens Coalition councillor Imtiaz Syed.
But Syed rubbished the claims by the EFF, saying the party’s reasoning for not supporting the motion was based on the fact that the party appeared to be in some form of partnership with the ANC.
EFF councillor and chairperson of eThekwini region Themba Mvubu said yesterday that the party still believed Kaunda must be ousted but they would act in their own time.
The EFF has come under fire from opposition parties for failing to vote for the motion after it protested against Kaunda, calling for his removal last year.
Other opposition parties went as far as to say that the EFF could no longer complain about poor service delivery following their vote.
At one of the last council meetings in December last year, the EFF protested inside the council chamber, holding placards that accused Kaunda of failing the city and calling for his removal.
In an interview with The Mercury on the party’s “backtracking” on the issue, Mvubu said they still wanted Kaunda gone. “We know that Kaunda has been useless there, and we’re going to remove him in our own way, in our own time,” said Mvubu.
Mvubu said the smaller parties had been disrespectful in the way they had approached the motion of no confidence. “How does a small party table a motion of no confidence on the mayor without canvassing the support of the other parties in the council? They piggybacked on our calls last year that Kaunda must go and assumed that they did not even have to consult us, and our vote was a given,” he said.
Mvubu said removing Kaunda was the easy part.
“There was no talk about who shall replace Kaunda. There was no plan as to what will happen once the mayor is removed. We want to have a stable municipality that is able to deliver services, and it should have been clear who will take over from Kaunda,” he said.
He said the people of eThekwini were less interested in who was leading the city than in having service delivery.
“There are many problems in this city. There are issues of cleanliness, the city is dirty, and there are issues of infrastructure. There are officials in this city that do as they please. We want to see these officials being held accountable.”
Syed said the leadership of most parties that supported the motion were in consultation with the leadership of the EFF.
“We are quite clear that in December, they were the ones calling for the removal of the mayor. They even had placards stating the same. Now, all of a sudden, when it’s in their interest, they will now support the mayor.
“How is it that they supported a deputy mayor from the NFP as well as a whip from the ANC? It’s quite clear that the ANC and the EFF are in a coalition in the City,” he said.