Mzwandile Masina resigns as ANC councillor in Ekurhuleni

In a move suggesting the ANC in Gauteng has sent a message that it would not brook any dissent from its structures, the party on Thursday announced that former Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina has resigned as a councillor, effective next Wednesday.

Masina’s resignation follows the party taking him on a disciplinary hearing for refusing to follow the ANC’s instruction to vote in an EFF councillor as mayor of the east Gauteng municipality earlier this month.

The EFF was, in turn, expected to vote with the ANC in Johannesburg to replace the DA-led city government.

Instead of voting with the EFF, the ANC raised concerns that the EFF wanted to take entire control of the metro even though it was the third-biggest party in council.

The ANC in Ekurhuleni preferred what it termed “power-sharing” instead of handing over the entire running of the city to the EFF. It fielded Masina’s regional deputy Jongizizwe Dlabathi for the mayoral position.

The EFF retaliated by abstaining from the vote, allowing Tania Campbell to return as mayor after she had been ousted following a no-confidence vote earlier.

Campbell received 124 out of 224 votes while Dlabathi only managed to secure 99 of the votes cast.

The announcement also coincides with the Joburg city councillors' meeting to debate a motion of no confidence against mayor Mpho Phalatse.

The ANC needs the EFF vote to oust Phalatse and replace her with an ANC-preferred candidate, most likely to be Dada Morero, the Joburg ANC chairperson who briefly held the post before the Joburg high court ruled that the motion to replace Phalatse, and therefore Morero’s election, had been unprocedural and returned her to the helm.

Although the ANC statement did not say whether Masina had been found guilty of the charge against him, the resignation would be read as punishing him for not following the party's instruction.

“The provincial working committee (PWC) received a report from the officials of the ANC in the province who met with the regional chairperson of the ANC in Ekurhuleni, comrade Mzwandile Masina, regarding what transpired at the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan council meeting earlier this month," read the ANC statement.

“The officials provided a report that comrade Mzwandile Masina will offer a public apology to members of the ANC and also that he has voluntarily decided to resign as a councillor representing the ANC in the Ekurhuleni council.”

ANC provincial chairperson Panyaza Lesufi confirmed Masina had tendered his resignation which would be effective at the end of November as both a councillor in Ekurhuleni and chairperson of the region, citing he had reached his ceiling.

“We accepted that and the PWC accepted that and we hereby wish him well. We know that he’s contesting to be the TG [treasurer-general] of the ANC and is also contesting to be in the NEC therefore we extend our well wishes to him. We’ve accepted his resignation,” Lesufi said.

He said Masina’s resignation was an in-house matter and not influenced by any external party.

“It was just purely in-house, a political matter. Now that these dynamics have developed in the manner they have, the ANC will then proceed with the discussions with other parties [in Ekurhuleni] but we’ve not yet started that,” Lesufi said.