The provincial leadership has reversed Ekurhuleni Mayor and regional chairperson Nkosindiphile Xhakaza's removal of Jongizizwe Dlabathi as the city's MMC for Finance and Strategy, following an urgent virtual meeting of provincial leaders.

In a letter to Xhakaza, provincial coordinator Sochayile Khanyile wrote that “the changes to the mayoral committee that you initiated … have not been approved,” and instructed the regional office bearers to deliberate and report back to provincial officials before any further action. The letter also urged the region to focus on the campaign.

Xhakaza has said the removal gave effect to a directive from the Secretary-General dated 29 May requiring party secretaries at all levels to relinquish government positions. He appointed Nomadlozi Nkosi as acting finance MMC.

Leaders sympathetic to Dlabathi read it differently, noting that he emerged strongly in the mayoral nomination and interview process. Regional and provincial figures report that Dlabathi was ranked first after interviews with 127 out of 140, with Xhakaza third on 114, and that the regional executive nominated Dlabathi for executive mayor.

The dispute is not new. Dlabathi resigned both positions in February over Xhakaza's unilateral removal of EFF councillors from coalition positions; that resignation was blocked by the provincial leadership.

This bulletin will not take sides in a matter properly before the movement's structures. But the timing deserves saying plainly: a public fight over a finance portfolio ten weeks before an election, in a metro the movement is defending, costs votes. Residents of Katlehong and Tembisa are not following the nomination arithmetic. They are watching a council argue with itself while their streetlights stay dark.