DURBAN - EFF president Julius Malema has threatened legal action over the inclusion of Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) leader Philani Mavundla in the eThekwini Municipality executive committee on an ANC ticket.
Malema said they were engaging with their lawyers on the matter as they suspect that something illegal had happened there.
At Wednesday’s eThekwini council meeting, the ANC withdrew one of its own members from the executive committee in order to include ABC leader Philani Mavundla to pave the way for him to be deputy mayor.
But questions have been raised about whether the ANC could legally surrender one of its executive committee seats to an outside individual.
A similar point was raised by DA councillor Nicole Graham during the council meeting, but the matter was shot down by the council’s legal adviser who said the Municipal Structures Act had been amended to allow for it.
Giving a briefing on the issues of local government outcomes and forming of councils, Malema said they suspected it might have been illegal for the ANC to give its executive committee seat to the ABC, in exchange for the ABC voting with it.
Mavundla was rewarded with a seat in the executive committee and the deputy mayor position after leading a voting bloc of small parties to vote with the ANC, saving it from being ejected as the leader of the municipality.
Referring to Mavundla, Malema said: “On a Monday, the person says the ANC will be out of power. On Wednesday the (same) person is on an ANC list.
“By the way, we have instructed our lawyers to look at that thing that they did in eThekwini because those positions belonged to the party called the ANC and I don’t think they could be willy-nilly given to other parties.
“So we think something illegal could have happened in eThekwini, so very soon they will be receiving papers. Those seats are allocated by the Independent Electoral Commission. The IEC said the ANC will get so much, DA so much, EFF so much.
“It is given to us ( parties) by what we got in the election, that is the party seat, and then you (the ANC) go and take a seat and allocate it to another party. The power to allocate the seat lies in the IEC, so the lawyers are looking into that matter,” Malema said.
THE MERCURY