Zephaniah is new Mbabane mayor

MBABANE – The bitter-sweet reign of Sikhatsi Dlamini as mayor of the capital city came to an abrupt end yesterday evening.

Councillors voted Sikhatsi out of the position in favour of Zephaniah Nkambule, who had all along been the former’s deputy.
Sikhatsi, who has been mayor for two years, can however seek solace from the fact that he has been elected to the position of deputy mayor.

New mayor Nkambule, who is ward one councillor, beat Sikhatsi by six votes to three much to the applause of those that witnessed the tense voting process.
Nkambule and Sikhatsi sat side by side throughout the election process that was chaired by Mbabane city acting Chief Executive Officer Njabulo Dlamini. It was a tense moment for Sikhatsi and Nkambule as City Council Public Relations Officer (PRO) Bongani Dlamini tallied the votes before announcing the result.
“Ladies and gentleman, the votes before me show that Sikhatsi Dlamini has got three votes while Zephaniah Nkambule has amassed six,” the PRO announced.

   
As soon as the results were announced Sikhatsi wore a slight grin of apparent defeat, while Nkambule sat more comfortably in his chair and could afford taking a sip of water from the glass before him. The defeated Sikhatsi could nonetheless summon enough courage to give his successor a hug before Nkambule ascended the Mayor’s chair. A total of nine councillors took part in the election process while Benedict Bennett and Bheki Nkambule missed out of the process. During his term as mayor, Sikhatsi experienced a lot of hurdles, with the first being his entire team of councillors being fired by former Housing Minister Mabili Dlamini.

They challenged their dismissal in court where they emerged victorious after spending months in the wilderness.
Just recently, Sikhatsi’s team was at loggerheads with the same Housing Ministry after an auction of property belonging to defaulting rate payers was suspended by then acting Housing Minister Ndumiso Mamba.
The auction was stopped and the ministry pointed at the councillors’ conduct, saying there were a lot of irregularities in the whole process.

The votes
Zephaniah Nkambule    6
Sikhatsi Dlamini         3

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