ID 'won't vote against Zille'
Cape Town - The Independent Democrats would not consider, nor take part in, a vote of no confidence against Cape Town mayor-elect Helen Zille, said party leader Patricia de Lille on Wednesday.
As a midnight deadline loomed on an offer from the Democratic Alliance to join the city's multiparty mayoral system, De Lille said the ID was still in talks with the DA and the African National Congress.
These were about changing the existing mayoral committee system to a collective executive committee system, she told reporters at parliament.
"We still believe that to bridge the divides of the past and unite Cape Town, both the ANC and the DA must be part of the city government."
De Lille said that if the discussions proved fruitless, the ID would launch a motion in the council to change the system.
This would be done as soon as possible and the ID did not have the ANC's support on this.
ID wants system changed
The DA said earlier it had offered the ID up to two seats on the executive mayoral committee.
De Lille said her party had considered the offer, and would meet the DA later on Wednesday.
But, the ID would not accept the seats if the system did not change.
"For us, it is not either or. We want the collective executive committee system. The offer from the DA at the moment is two seats inside the old system.
"We don't want the two seats in the existing... system."
If the ID had not reached a decision by midnight, the DA would be "free to continue to do whatever they need to do", said De Lille.
Will remain in opposition
The ID, she added, accepted that Zille had been democratically elected. The ID had backed ANC candidate Nomaindia Mfeketo for the post.
De Lille said: "We will not consider, nor participate in, a motion of no confidence in the mayor."
"If the ANC as a party wants to pursue a motion of no confidence, they are perfectly free to do so."
If all negotiations failed, the ID would remain in opposition and consider everything before the council on an "issue-by-issue" basis, she said.
De Lille insisted that the ID had not lied nor betrayed its voters.
"We have refused to enter into any coalition with any political party," she said.
"That vote for ANC (on the mayorship) was an isolated vote for that particular issue.
'Goodbye and goodnight'
"Everything else that will follow, the ID will consider on an issue-by-issue basis."
DA MP Ryan Coetzee predicted the ID would be destroyed if it opted not to join a DA-led coalition of smaller parties in the Cape Town metro council.
"Then it's goodbye and goodnight to the ID," he told reporters in Cape Town.
Coetzee, a member of the DA's negotiating team making overtures to the ID, said the DA had learnt that the ID was talking to the ANC.
When the ID proposed an amendment to the system of governance, it became clear the party was working with the ANC to "bring this (city) government down", he added.
James Selfe, chairman of the DA's federal council, produced a letter explaining to De Lille why her proposal was rejected.
"We are honour-bound to uphold our agreement with our partners in government.
"A conversion to an executive committee system would mean that they would no longer form part of the government of Cape Town," he read from the document.
Selfe said it was the view of the DA and smaller parties like the African Christian Democratic Party, the United Democratic Party and Universal Party, that the city government had been legitimately constituted.
Don't want ongoing changes
"...and the voters of Cape Town expect stability and delivery.
"They do not want to see the city government destabilised or subject to ongoing changes of composition and direction."
Asked how well the coalition, which saw Zille taking the mayoral chain by a slender three votes, would hold up to a motion of no-confidence, Zille said: "We have full confidence in our coalition partners". "There is no reason to doubt their commitment," she said.
If the ID did not respond by midnight, the DA and its partners would announce a mayoral executive committee at 10:00 on Thursday.
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