At the first special council meeting of the Makhado Municipality on March 20, the election of the Executive Committee (EXCO) was marked by a fiasco.

The election of the EXCO and its Chairperson, the Mayor, was conducted at the first meeting of the local council which, according to the Municipal Structures Act, had to take place within 14 days of the publication of the election results.

After Council agreed to have the maximum number of 10 councillors on the EXCO, it was explained by Mr Vic Viljoen that proportionally, according to seats, the members of the Executive Committee of Council are the ANC 8 and the DA 1. The remaining seat would be occupied by the opposition and seeing that the 0.27 seats obtained by both the ID and ACDP add up to 0,54, which can form one EXCO seat, the two could agree on sharing the seat or otherwise develop a mechanism to resolve this. It was advised that they come to consensus or vote amongst each other who would take up the seat. One nomination was handed in, that of the ACDP.

EXCO members were announced as being the Mayor, Cllr Glory Mashaba, ANC councillors Esther Makhomisani, Patricia Queen Reyneke, Grace Nkanyani, Albert Muvhumbe, Norman Mabila, Betty Lowane and James Mudau. The other two councillors are the DA’s Jacques Smalle and the ACDP’s Brighton Hlongwane.

After nomination was over and the EXCO members announced, the ID’s Cllr Manganyi’s protests could hardly be silenced by the speaker, Cllr Joan Hoorzuk. She reprimanded him more than once for his disrespectful way of speaking. He accused Mr Vic Viljoen of keeping the nomination form back. Mr Viljoen explained that there could only be one nomination. The speaker later announced that the form had been found in the diary of Cllr Masuka of the ID. Council was reminded of the code of conduct, which was also on the agenda for the special meeting.