The election of a new Johannesburg mayor was postponed on Thursday after Speaker Vasco da Gama said he needed to consult independent legal experts on discrepancies in the voting procedure in the city council’s rules and the Municipal Structures Act.

Da Gama, responding to a query from the EFF about on the definition of the word “majority” in the law and rules, postponed the council meeting to 4 and 5 December. Councillors were meeting to elect a replacement for Herman Mashaba, who resigned in October after leading the city for over three years.

ANC acting national spokesperson Dakota Legoete, who attended the council sitting with ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule, said Da Gama, a DA member, was a “mediocre” speaker and the DA was acting with “pure criminality”.

“The DA are just postponing their pain. They’re just postponing what was coming today,” said Legoete.

The ANC plans to take the postponement to court and Lekota said the DA elected Mashaba in 2016 under the same rules in 2016 but wanted to query them now because they were going to lose the election.

The ANC on Thursday morning announced it would nominate its Johannesburg Chairperson Geoff Makhubo as mayor. The DA planned to nominate Mashaba’s finance MMC Funzela Ngobeni and the EFF said it would nominate its Johannesburg Chairperson Musa Novela.

The Municipal Structures Act requires mayors to be elected by a “majority of votes” but it doesn’t provide further detail. The city council’s rules require the mayor to be elected by a majority of councillors present in a quorate sitting, meaning 50% plus one.

The Act supersedes council rules and Da Gama said the city needed a legal opinion on the process because if the Act is applied, it may mean a majority of 100 councillors out of the council’s 270 members could elect a mayor.

“It could mean anything,” Da Gama said of the Act.

DA Gauteng Provincial Chairperson Mike Moriarty said Da Gama’s decision was necessary to avoid a potential legal challenge to the election of a new mayor.

“We’re of the view that the speaker has done the right thing and we applaud him for doing so,” said Moriarty.

EFF Deputy President Floyd Shivambu, who was also present at the council sitting, also backed Da Gama’s postponement. He held lengthy conversations with Magashule during the sitting but said they were only about the meaning of a majority in the election.

“You cannot enter [as mayor] with 40% of councillors [voting for you],” said Shivambu.

The EFF is the kingmaker in the Johannesburg council and there’s no indication it has reached a deal with either the ANC or DA.

Moriarty said he believed the ANC and EFF might have reached an agreement, but that could have been scuppered by the ANC nominating Makhubo as its candidate for mayor. Makhubo allegedly scored millions from a deal with embattled company Regiments Capital.

Moriarty said the EFF did not respond to its requests to discuss the mayoral election in the lead-up to the council sitting. The EFF’s Novela said that, regardless of when the vote takes place, the party would soon govern the city.

Johannesburg city manager Ndivhoniswani Lukhwareni is currently in charge of running the city while no mayor has been elected. The city’s executive council has also been disbanded, meaning MMCs appointed by Mashaba have lost their positions.

While the DA will have another week to negotiate a deal with its coalition partners and the EFF in Johannesburg, it was struck a blow in Tshwane on Thursday.

Tshwane Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa was placed on special leave until January after an audio recording allegedly suggested he had a romantic relationship MMC Sheila Senkubuge. The ANC and EFF challenged the special leave during a no-confidence motion sitting on Thursday.

While the DA said it has appointed Abel Tau as acting mayor of Tshwane, both the ANC and EFF have said they want Mokgalapa removed due to maladministration. DM