South Africa News

I’m ready to serve as ordinary councillor – eThekwini interim mayor Fawzia Peer

Outgoing eThekwini interim mayor Fawzia Peer says if the ANC decides so, she is more than ready to serve as an ordinary councillor in the same council she was once the second in command.

Peer says she will wait for her party to tell her where she should go next and do as instructed as “no one defies the ANC”. Speaking briefly to Independent Media in Durban on Sunday on the sidelines of a meeting of ANC branches that gathered to back the provincial leaderships decision to fire her former political boss, Zandile Gumede, Peer said for the time being she is keeping the seat warm until a new mayor is named.

“I will serve wherever the ANC say I must serve as loyal and disciplined member. No one defies the ANC once it has spoken, you go where you have been deployed… For now I am holding the fort,” Peer said.

Fawzia Peer

Meanwhile, Gumede, writing on her Facebook page on Sunday, immediately after the meeting where she was lambasted, sarcastically poked fun at the members as displaying false unity. Using a Zulu idiom, she wrote: “Bahlangene phezulu kanti phansi bangamahele.” Loosely translated, Gumede meant that they are displaying false unity to the public yet they are deeply divided.

This was in apparent reference to the fact that the gathering was attended and led by Thabani Nyawose and Bheki Ntuli, whom are both known to harbour ambitions of being regional chairperson on different slates.

You might also like…The rise and fall of former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede

She is a powerful manipulator who established a strong patronage network that helped her achieve political dominance to many. To others, she is a hard-working woman from a humble background in Inanda, who worked her way to the top. But answering the question, who is Zandile Gumede, the ousted mayor of Durban, and how did she amass such power and support, is not easy.

Zandile Gumede

Notably, though, her supporters, allies and political foes agreed that she used her work with people on the ground to rise to the upper echelons, and she was a leader who remained connected to her people …Read more

Source: IOL