The new City of Ekurhuleni Mayor Tania Campbell says her government will “hit the ground running” following her reinstatement as the executive in charge once again. This follows her removal last month after a motion of no confidence against her was passed. Today (Tuesday) at the Germiston City Council she defeated the ANC’s Jongizizwe Dlabathi, who received 99 votes while she received 124 votes. Thanks to the Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) who voted for her after the negotiations with the ANC were unsuccessful. EFF has 31 seats at the council of 224 members while the ANC occupies 86 and the DA is the second biggest with 65. Action SA which is part of the coalition has 15, the rest are taken up by so-called smaller parties. Campbell said they have a clear plan to address service delivery issues although the party has a huge task but “we are all up for that hard task. “I would like to say thank you to the resident for being patient, we do apologize for the break in executive and holding officials to account but we do have the official back on board soon you will see the turnaround strategy from us,” she said adding that she is willing to work with opposition parties for the benefit of the city.
“I have an open door policy with all the parties, in fact after the council I approached some of the party [members] before I walked out and said let’s sit around the table and see what are the problems that are not attended to.” She also said she does reach out to communities on the ground to determine their needs. The Democratic Alliance (DA) and ActionSA in the City of Ekurhuleni have welcomed the re-election of Tania Campbell as the mayor of the municipality. She defeated the African National Congress (ANC)‘s Jongizizwe Dlabathi, who received 99 votes while she received 124 votes on Tuesday. In welcoming Campbell’s re-election, the DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga said Campbell will accelerate service delivery. “For the past two weeks the municipality has been without a captain at the wheel therefore we are committing ourselves as the DA, ActionSA, IFP [Inkatha Freedom Party], ACDP [African Christian Democratic Party], as Freedom Front Plus to working together and going back and making sure we are able to provide services to the people of Ekurhuleni,” he said. ActionSA’s Bongani Baloyi described Campbell’s re-election as unexpected. “I think we are excited with the outcome as we believe as South Africans, people must ask tough questions to the EFF participation at the motion of no confidence because this was really unexpected,” he said.
However, ANC Ekurhuleni leader, Mzwandile Masina said it was not about the EFF but the ANC didn’t win. “We negotiated not just with EFF, seven parties and other parties including the EFF don’t make this the EFF/ ANC issue, no,” he said. “The ANC with its experience and presence in the wards, should take the lead in terms of the executive authority, the second option was that we co-govern with other parties. Campbell was removed through a motion of no confidence on 26 October 2022.
