EFF Councillor Allegedly "Stole" Phone at Chaotic Ekurhuleni Council Meeting
- A council meeting in Ekurhuleni descended into chaos on Thursday afternoon
- An EFF councillor was spotted ‘stealing’ the mayor’s phone amid the scuffle and chaos
- South Africans have weighed in with their thoughts on the now-viral footage of the incident
Source: Getty Images
An EFF councillor is trending on the news after being spotted allegedly stealing the Ekurhuleni mayor’s phone when a physical fight between councillors broke out during a council meeting on Thursday afternoon. This chaos saw the removal of EFF members from the chambers by the EMPD.
This meeting erupted in chaos after ActionSA tabled a motion for a vote of no confidence in Mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana.
News24 reported that the coalition between the ANC and the EFF crumbled on Thursday when EFF councillors physically clashed with the ANC.
However, the news that grabbed the most attention was an EFF councillor that was caught on camera grabbing Mayor Ngodwana’s phone during the scuffle. This yet-to-be-identified EFF councillor was seen taking the phone from the table where the mayor was sitting and disappearing into the crowd.
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Journalists were able to capture the moment the phone was "stolen" and shared their videos online:
Briefly News reached out to the EFF for comment, but they had not yet responded at the time of going to publish.
South Africans react to video showing phone “theft”
The viral video was met with outrage and shock from social media users:
DA KZN chair Dean Macpherson said:
"The EFF stole the mayors phone."
@sabelochalufu said:
“An EFF Councillor stole a Mayor’s phone, at a council meeting, in front of the whole country!”
@ndlovuAS said:
“Wtf! the EFF's Ekurhuleni councillor stole a phone during a fight? Terrible season of elections, people with so much expertise dealing with crime can’t distinguish crime and commotion.”
@lavitosoul said:
“EFF hooligans attacked ANC members and stole Mayors phone.”
@c_skaap said:
“A member representing them in a municipal capacity stole a cell phone. In front of cameras before throwing papers around. And you still defend them and want to vote EFF so things like this don't make the air, and close a whole news station?”
Julius Malema questions MPs who were absent for Hlophe impeachment
Meanwhile, Briefly News previously reported that the Economic Freedom Fighters' president, Julius Malema, announced that he would investigate why 11 members of the party in Parliament did not show up for the impeachment vote.
This was when Judge President John Hlophe and retired judge Nkola Motata were impeached for gross misconduct. South Africans praised Malema for his disciplinary stance and called for the members to be axed.
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Source: Briefly News
Sibusisiwe Lwandle (Head of Entertainment) Sibusisiwe Lwandle is the Head of Entertainment at Briefly News (joined in 2019). She holds one Bachelor of Arts (BA) and one Bachelor of Science (BSc) degree from the University of Cape Town and the University of KZN respectively. She has over 10 years of experience in journalism, having worked in print, online and broadcast media. She has worked at Independent Media and 1KZNTV and has contributed columns to the Washington Post. Passed set of trainings by Google News Initiative. Email: sibusisiwe.lwandle@briefly.co.za
Mbali Tebele (Editor) Mbali Tebele is a multimedia journalist with six years of experience in entertainment & sports, holding a national diploma from IIE Rosebank College (2019). She started her career 2018 as a news writer & videographer, then moved to Add-X Marketing Solution as an account coordinator & social media assistant (2020). She was a freelance writer at Newskoop (2021) and a multimedia journalist and social media assistant at Daily Sun Newspaper (2022). Email: mbali.tebele@briefly.co.za
