After some serious headbutting in the past month over who should be deployed to two vacant Buffalo City Metro mayoral committee seats, consensus seems to have been reached, with Dr Mike Basopu and Amanda Mnyute finally getting the nod to assume their executive duties, from October 1.
BCM mayor and ANC regional chair Princess Faku and the party ’s regional secretary, Antonio Carels, have been at loggerheads over who should occupy the top council seats.
Faku recently wrote to the provincial ANC to voice her displeasure about the deployment of Basopu and Mnyute to her mayoral committee.
The two seats became vacant after the recent departure of seasoned politician Helen Neale-May to parliament and the death of Ntombikayise Tom, who had doubled as the region’s deputy chair.
Faku’s argument was that the ANC’s deployment committee in the Dr WB Rubusana region had instead endorsed or recommended ANC councillors Mninawa Nyusile and Bongiwe Saule to head up the public safety portfolio and corporate services, respectively.
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi wrote to the regional ANC bosses on September 4, informing them of the province’s decision to deploy Basopu and Mnyute as members of the mayoral committee in BCM.
Faku wrote back to the province on September 14, saying she was “surprised to learn” that Basopu and Mnyute’s names had been submitted to Calata House, despite them not being endorsed by the regional executive.
In her letter, Faku told Ngcukayitobi that Carels had “unilaterally submitted” the names of Basopu and Mnyute to the list that went to the province, while the region’s deployment committee had recommended that only Nyusile and Saule’s names should be submitted for consideration.
She further accused Carels of “distorting the regional deployment committee’s recommendations”, saying such action “affects organisational unity and fundamentally undermines” the region’s processes.
Ngcukayitobi said the province’s decision on Basopu and Mnyute stood, but there were delays in the swearing in of the two as members of the mayoral committee.
However, on Tuesday, Faku changed her tune and confirmed their deployment as mayoral committee members, saying they were “the right people who have come at a right time”.
“Both the new members have vast experience in governance, with councillor Basopu having served both as an MP and an MPL.
“Councillor Mnyute has been serving at BCM for more than a decade. She has a broad and unique understanding of local government.
“They are the right people who have come at the time the council needed them and their experience.
“No doubt that we have received two councillors who will have a positive impact in the governance of the metro.
“They came at the time that we needed more hands to make sure that service delivery reaches our communities. They will add value to BCM,” Faku said.
“There is a lot that needs to be done, but I know they will hit the ground running.
“I believe we have a strong team of dedicated MMCs across all portfolios, and we will continue to do our best to build a metro that works for all its people.”
The new MMCs, Faku said, would join “a team that has the needs of our people at heart.”
“The combined experience the team has will make this work smoothly for the committee.
“Ours is to service the people wholeheartedly, and thanks to the ANC for identifying such individuals to be part of this committee.”
A statement released by the ANC region on Tuesday suggested the warring regional leaders might have smoked the peace pipe, at least for now.
In the statement, Carels said the party’s regional executive committee, which met at the weekend, was pleased with Faku’s efforts in achieving financial, administrative and political stability in the metro.
“The ANC is thrilled by the recovering state of the municipality, as the financial state of the metro has not been healthy for quite some time.
“This ecstatic moment is informed by the report which was tabled by the executive mayor of the institution.
“The REC acclaimed the institutional leadership, as led by the executive mayor, for the work done in trying to bring the municipality [to] a better state,” Carels said.
In June, the conflict between the two leaders forced the provincial ANC hierarchy to descend on the region and read them the riot act, before threatening to dissolve the regional structure should they fail to work in unity by the end of July.
The region is due to stage an elective conference early in 2025.
Factional battles have been the order of the day in the region in recent months, with party structures and their alliance partners allegedly divided in their support for Faku and Carels.
Basopu and Mnyute could not be reached for comment.
Basopu previously told the Dispatch he understood the challenges faced by the metro and that his vast experience would come in handy in his new BCM assignment.
“I have been in government for a long time so that experience will come in handy.
“I don’t think there is a big difference between the three layers of government — national, provincial and municipal,” Basopu said when the announcement of his imminent deployment to the mayoral committee was made in September.
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