The speaker of council remains Thandisizwe Khukula while the new chief whip is Bulelwa Nokhanda. He was due to be elected officially in council today‚ however‚ the meeting is currently in progress.

ANC provincial secretary Oscar Mabuyane confirmed the appointments‚ saying the ruling party wanted to create stability in the embattled municipality.

He said the ANC provincial leadership went to the municipality today to communicate the decision and to address employees.

“We are really appealing to all stakeholders to respect their areas of functioning. Managers must manage‚ workers must work and leaders must lead. We cannot have an overlap of responsibilities.”

ANC OR Tambo regional deputy secretary Lawrence Mambila said the regional leadership wanted to ensure that there was stability in Port St Johns.

“Once you have a municipality that does not do its mandate of service delivery‚ that is a great concern. The provincial and regional leadership have taken those matters seriously. We are trying to sort out all the problems.”