Watch: Sole ATM Councillor Mncedi Ndzwanana Elected New Speaker in Tshwane

A sole African Transformation Movement councillor, Mncedi Ndzwanana, is the new Speaker of council in the City of Tshwane. Ndzwanana won by 105 votes during a secret ballot election on Monday night after he received the majority of the votes from the EFF and ANC. He contested for the position against ActionSA’s Kholofelo Morodi, who only got 37 votes. ActionSA councillor Morodi was fielded as candidate for the Speaker’s position by the multiparty coalition block, which include the DA, her party, FF+, ACDP, and IFP. All in all 211 councillors cast their ballots and at least 69 votes belonging to the DA were spoiled. DA caucus leader Cilliers Brink expressed disappointment after the Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC), which oversaw the voting process, discarded the party’s votes “as a result of the mark that was not of a secrecy ballot”. Asked how the DA councillors voted, Brink told journalists that “we made a marking of our own” on the ballot papers when voting. “So, once this stuff is reviewed you will clearly see where the marking is, next to the candidate of ActionSA. It was for transparency purposes,” he said.