ANC mayor Xhakaza doubles down on axing EFF

Ekurhuleni executive mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza insists that he did the necessary consultations before dropping a late-night bombshell with a mayoral committee reshuffle, which saw the EFF and ActionSA rejecting his mayoral committee (MMC) seats.

Xhakaza pulled the trigger on the imminent divorce between the ANC and the red berets in Gauteng, a move which he says has long been awaited.

Despite the wide-ranging repercussions, he insists he had to act.

“When I engaged them, they never really said they are refusing the offers. The EFF said that if you cut us down, we are pulling out everywhere. But this threat comes at a time where we must make decisions in the interests of the people of Ekurhuleni.

[ EFF accuses ANC of ‘breaking’ coalition pact in EkurhuleniOpens in new window ]

“There are 4.2-million people that we are servicing. Today we have commissions that place this municipality in the spotlight. If I don’t do the right thing, I will have to account.”

Xhakaza said the decision to downsize the EFF’s MMC seats by firing EFF Gauteng leader Nkululeko Dunga from finance and reducing the remaining four seats to two was a self-correction.

“I said to them, ‘You’ve got five, you deserve two’. Firstly, if we speak about being proportional to the number of seats, they have 1.2 or 1.3 in ratio, which makes it two seats. If we look at wards, they get nothing because they have no wards. But if we benchmark, in Johannesburg and Tshwane they’ve got two MMCs.”

The reduction of the EFF presence on the mayoral committee has always been on the cards. It was based on performance. If you look at community services, it has been dismal.

—  Nkosindiphile Xhakaza, Ekurhuleni executive mayor

He had conducted performance reviews across all portfolios and this motivated his move, he said.

“The reduction of the EFF presence on the mayoral committee has always been on the cards. It was based on performance. If you look at community services, it has been dismal. Grass cutting and maintenance of cemeteries is lacking, there is no communication with our communities, and that portfolio is led by the EFF. In terms of health, the state of our centres, the sports facilities and the swimming pools — we then said there are issues of underperformance.”

The mayor argued that for too long, Ekurhuleni had been the landing ground for compromise across the province, having to sacrifice to appease the party for their collaboration in other metros.

Xhakaza said he had been victimised by his erstwhile coalition partners, and described himself as the most abused mayor.

“If you can go and observe what happens in council and the behaviour, you can imagine what happens in my own little mayoral committee in terms of how we process decisions. They bring a councillor that I had removed, a councillor that has been at the centre of some of the difficulties we have experienced in this municipality.

“I need you to understand the painful period that I have presided over as a mayor. I don’t think that any other mayor has experienced the difficulties that I had to go through, trying to lead this city.”

His administration had brought a minority partner in to act as speaker as a warning to the EFF, but the red berets did not heed the warning, Xhakaza said.

“They insisted on the character that did not have a record of good performance in the city. We elected in November somebody from the NFP as an acting speaker. It was a warning to say, ‘Give us another speaker candidate from your organisation,’ but they insisted on Dunga. That is when we presented to our organisation to say we don’t have a reasonable coalition partner.”

[ Malema orders withdrawal of EFF support for ANC in GautengOpens in new window ]

The EFF was too difficult to work with for the sake of saving other metropolitan municipalities and the Gauteng province, he said.

“It was a collaborative arrangement because there was no principle; it means you wake up and go to work and work with a team that does not subscribe to any principle whatsoever. That is one of the things that made it very difficult for us to continue that arrangement; we were going to be accomplices to that.”

Xhakaza referred to policy disagreements as one of the stumbling blocks that led to the separation.

“There are other issues, ideologically, that should not apply at local government because we are more practical. Policy formulation largely is at a national level; here at local government we are dealing with a pro-poor agenda, servicing our wards, redressing the injustices of the past. We look at services and how we allocate budgets here, but it’s on the basis of providing electricity, residents having water in their taps, no potholes, functioning streetlights, removing waste, cutting the grass...

“We can have conversations about land invasion, for instance. We would say we can’t allow it because shacks are mushrooming everywhere, then they argue that it is land occupation. There is a difference because occupation is encouraged while we deem it as lawlessness.”

Xhakaza said he was most disappointed by ActionSA’s rejection of an MMC seat. He wanted Xolani Khumalo to have room to do what he’s most passionate about and so he was offered the post of MMC for community services

“He would’ve gotten to live his passion on a legal platform, not as a random person.”

Xhakaza has been in the City of Ekurhuleni’s executive for 12 years, having served under former mayor Mondli Gungubele as water and electricity MMC, and as finance MMC under Mzwandile Masina.

“I know what needs to be done in terms of capacity and reservoirs and building the pipelines, as I had been in that portfolio. Under Masina, we had three clean audits consistently, and that was the last we heard of it.

“My bid is to restore the city back to its former glory, and I can’t not act and effect changes because of the time left. I have to leave the city in a good state so that those who are coming find the city in good shape and take it forward to greater heights.”