eThekwini latest: ‘Ghost votes’, missing councillors spark chaos

Get your calculators out for this one – voting for the next speaker and mayor of eThekwini was delayed on Wednesday, after several parties raised concerns with how many councillors were actually present in the house.

Voting starts in eThekwini… eventually

In total, there are 222 council seats in eThekwini. But three councillors are absent from the session. Therefore, instead of needing 112 votes or more to secure control of the metro, the ANC’s Mxolisi Kaunda and DA’s Nicole Graham are only competing for 110 votes, in order to secure a majority. But sadly, it’s no longer that simple.

There has been a major discrepancy reported by aggrieved councillors. One register taken from earlier has 217 councillors registered at the sitting today – taking the number needed for victory down to 109. That may not seem too significant on the surface, but we assure you, these razor-thin margins could change everything.

Will the DA or ANC win eThekwini mayor race?

Both the DA and the ANC will have to convince elected members of smaller parties to side with them, in order to get their mayoral candidates elected. As it stands, there are 14 undecided politicians who must decide on which candidate they will back. The DA only need the support of five to get over the line, where are the ANC need 10 of them.

• Wayne Sussman, an elections expert, has done a great job of explaining the current situation.

I have been told that 1 ANC seat, 1 DLC seat & the PRM seat are not filled.
eThekwini Numbers
ANC/AIC/Al-Jamah/ABC-100
DA/EFF/IFP/ActionSA/VF/ACDP-105
Magical number is 110 as there are 219 cllrs present
Unallocated- 14 seats
1 parties with 2 seats-ACC
12 other parties 1 seat

— Wayne Sussman (@waynesussman) November 24, 2021

‘Ghost votes and missing councillors’ cause concern

ANC members initially pushed back against a headcount, before the speaker of the house confirmed that there would be another totalling of members present. The differences between a full house, 219 councillors, or 217 councillors in attendance are all stark, and could have a major say in which party sees their mayoral pick elected.

However, the chaos of these so-called ‘ghost voters’ has added more tension to a situation already that’s already resting on a knife-edge. Voting has now started, but suspicions ran wild earlier…

#EthekwiniCouncil

It really sounds like someone could get killed anytime now. There's 2 ghost voters and ANC are resisting number verification.

Imagine being in such a meeting weekly, when there are no cameras. KZN is a hazard shem

— Wakahisa (@nevi_me) November 24, 2021

Voting hasn't began because the number of councillors available to vote is displayed on the board but some parties want a head count via a register. EFF councillor is telling the Speaker voetsek #eThekwinicouncil pic.twitter.com/Qo8nYCySII

— ZimasaMatiwane (@ZimasaMatiwane) November 24, 2021

The EFF and IFP refuse to proceed with the mayoral vote until a head count is done. They confront the IEC official in charge. #eThekwiniCouncil #eNCA pic.twitter.com/CGkYiQLnnd

— Dasen Thathiah (@DasenThathiah) November 24, 2021