Cape Town - The DA’s Eddie Andrews, 44, has been officially elected deputy mayor of Cape Town.
The former WP and Springbok rugby star received 138 votes from the 196 votes cast in the race between him and Petronella Heynes (ANC), who got 49 votes.
There were 218 voters in the election for deputy mayor, but nine spoiled their votes and 22 abstained.
Andrews, who represents ward 73, Diep River and Meadowridge, as councillor previously served as chairperson of the City’s Spatial Planning Environment portfolio committee
Before moving his political base to ward 73 at the last election, Andrews had been councillor for ward 78 (now 81), Mitchells Plain., where he was born.
Andrews’ election followed that of new mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and the re-election of Felicity Purchase as speaker.
Alderman @AndrewsEddie today, 18 November 2021, during a full Inaugural Meeting of the Council of the City of Cape Town, was duly elected as the new Executive Deputy Mayor of the City of Cape Town.#CTNews pic.twitter.com/xCn3voDYK3
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) November 18, 2021
The municipality held its first council meeting for the newly-elected councillors on Thursday, where proceedings were being initially steered by City of Cape Town municipal manager Lungelo Mbandazayo.
Purchase was first elected to the post in May this year after she had taken over the position when Dirk Smit, who served as councillor and speaker for 15 years, retired. She has been a councillor for 26 years, and until May was the Mayco member for transport.
The ANC nominated Xolani Sotashe as the preferred candidate, while the African Christian Democratic Party's Grant Haskin was also nominated.
After Purchase’s election was ratified, they moved on to the election of the new City of Cape Town mayor, where Hill-Lewis was officially been elected as the youngest Cape Town Mayor.
Former former WP and Springbok rugby star, Eddie Andrews, has been officially elected Hill-Lewis' deputy mayor. pic.twitter.com/sy8baKgcPZ
— Cape Argus (@TheCapeArgus) November 18, 2021
Hill-Lewis said that as the local government that had been elected by the people of Cape Town, they will serve the city with a clear higher purpose.
“That purpose can be summed up in one sentence – to restore hope in South Africa by turning Cape Town into living proof that we can roll back poverty, that we can overcome the long shadows of our past, and that our country can still realise the society dreamed of in the founding documents of our democracy, the Constitution.”
Hill-Lewis added: “A city more caring, more inclusive, more prosperous, more united, more respectful, more safe and more free. My fellow Capetonians, today we map out the route for this purpose-driven journey of hope that we are embarking on.”
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za