The new mayor of the eThekwini Municipality could be elected to the post as early as next week.
Two highly placed sources told “The Mercury” that negotiations between the ANC and its partners expected to support its mayoral candidate would be finalised at the weekend and a special council meeting could be called on Wednesday or Thursday.
Asked about the special council meeting to elect the mayor, the office of the speaker of the eThekwini Municipality pleaded ignorance, saying it has not issued any notice about such a meeting.
Former ANC MP Cyril Xaba is expected to be elected to the top post after he was sworn in as a councillor.
Xaba was supposed to be elected to the post during a council meeting last week, but this was abandoned when it became apparent that the ANC did not have the votes.
Speaker Thabani Nyawose said at the time that the election of the mayor could not go ahead because the Electoral Commission of South Africa was not available to preside over the elections.
He also said parties in the council had asked for more time to finalise talks about working together.
It is expected that the ANC, the DA, the IFP and the NFP, who form part of the provincial government of unity, will vote with the ANC to elect the new mayor.
An ANC leader aware of the matter said the discussions on which parties would vote with the ANC would be finalised on Sunday, adding that parties that are part of the Government of National Unity (GNU) are expected to support the election of the new mayor.
“We might have to give away something, depending on what the parties that are voting with us want, so there might be a reshuffling of the committees. There is a lot of anxiety, but we will wait and see. We expect the negotiations to be finalised this Sunday and there will be a clearer picture on Monday,” said the leader.
Another councillor in the municipality said he was aware that a meeting would be called for next week.
“All the things that were holding us back from electing the mayor have been resolved,” said the councillor.
“We know that a meeting has been called for next week, in all likelihood for Wednesday, and we believe that this matter is going to be one of the items that are discussed as a priority “The parties that are part of the GNU will have to (support) the election of the mayor. The national relationship has to have a bearing on this election,” said the councillor.
Thabani Mthethwa, the DA leader in eThekwini, said he could not speak about the council meeting scheduled for next week, saying that the speaker’s office could announce it.
Pressed on whether the DA would be supporting the election of the mayor, Mthethwa said they would wait for guidance on such a matter from the provincial leadership.
IFP leader Mdu Nkosi said they have not been given any directive by the national leadership on how to handle the voting for the mayor.
ANC provincial spokesperson Mafika Mndebele said it was important to remember that in eThekwini, the ANC had parties that it had been working with, “and we have worked well with those partners and we are not planning to ditch them”.
“However, there are development with the forming of the provincial government of unity, part of the things we had agreed on in the forming of the GPU (Government of Provincial Unity) is that they would (finalise) discussions on the appointment of the premier, the provincial cabinet and then discuss partnerships in all hung municipalities. “This is work in progress,” he said.
The Mercury