THE secretary-general of the African Independent Congress (AIC), Aubrey Mhlongo, has declared war against the African National Congress (ANC).
This comes after their councillor, Sivuyile Ngodwana, was ousted as the mayor of Ekurhuleni, a year after he was elected to the position.
Forty-seven councillors voted for his removal from the mayoral office, while only 32 backed him.
The ANC and Democratic Alliance abstained during the vote on the motion of no confidence against Ngodwana on Thursday, 28 March, in Germiston, Ekurhuleni.
Mhlongo said they feel betrayed and let down by the ANC.
He said they are going to open new and fresh negotiations with other parties they can bank on and trust their party.
“Not this ANC That is not trusted at all. What happened here now will affect Joburg because you know how EFF operates, and what we like about them is the party that you can trust.
“If they take the position, they stick with their position, and they always respect their leadership, but with the ANC, you cannot trust them anymore,” said Mhlongo
He said if the ANC had had a problem with the mayor, they should have sat down with their party and discussed what problems they had.
“Mayor Ngondwana delivered week in and week out what happens what is at play here is politics, and it's just everybody wants to have his fingers in the cookie jar that's all,” said Mhlongo.
Ngodwana holds one of three African Independent Congress (AIC) seats.
The AIC is one of the "super seven" minority parties - along with the ATM, ICM, PAC, Cope, UDM and NFP - which joined the ANC/EFF coalition.
The super seven voted with ActionSA against the mayor on Thursday, 28 March.
ActionSA Caucus Leader, Siyanda Makhubu said they are pleased with the outcome of the vote of no confidence against EFF puppet mayor Ngodwana.
“We have always maintained that this administration was a disaster to begin with. We know for a fact that Councillor Ngodwana was a compromise candidate between ANC and EFF when they could not find each other, and they compromised on the minority party, and that was the AIC of Ngodwana.
“We are very pleased that political parties in council have supported us notwithstanding interesting enough the abstaining from the AC and the DA but what's very interesting is that some councillors broke ranks because of their conscience these are word councillors who come from areas where service delivery are affecting impact their residents,” he said.
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He said they are calling the IEC within seven days to elect a new mayor.
“We will start negotiations and consultations with all political parties. We have filled the executive mayor candidate. If the numbers are on our side, we will have to put administration from all political parties. The multi-party administration will get to work and fix Ekurhuleni,” said Makhubu.
Meanwhile, Ekurhuleni speaker Nthabiseng Tshivhenga has survived a motion of no confidence in her.
Ninety councillors voted to be removed from her position, while 116 voted for her to retain her position.
The motion was brought by DA councillor Raymond Dhlamini, the council's former speaker, and seconded by DA caucus chief whip Michael Waters.
According to motion papers set out in the agenda, the speaker failed in her duty to maintain and "preserve order and proper decorum during the meetings."
During the brawl, Tshivhenga, an EFF councillor, left the council without leadership.
During the debate held before the vote, the EFF said the motion was brought by the “sexist” and “racist white colonialists", the DA, who they said don’t want to see a black woman hold a powerful position in the council.
The FF+ said they had lost confidence in Tshivhenga saying, that she did not uphold the decorum of the council.
