By Anel Powell
Cape Town's deputy mayor, Charlotte Williams, will resign on Friday.
And it is possible that ID caucus leader Simon Grindrod, who in 2006 lost the position of deputy mayor by one vote, could finally take his seat next to Mayor Helen Zille as her second-in-command.
Williams on Thursday admitted that rumours of her giving up the position of deputy mayor in one of the biggest metros in the province, were true.
But she said her departure was not yet official. It would be announced at Friday's special council meeting.
Grindrod was vague about whether he would take over the deputy position from Williams.
"I can't comment at all. What will happen will happen. All I can say is that during the week the provincial leaders of all the coalition partners met."
He said an announcement still had to be made.
Zille also declined to comment, but she did say that she did not think Grindrod would get the position. "I don't think he will be deputy mayor."
Williams said she was hanging up her chain so that she could once again "put on her takkies" to do community work in Mitchells Plain.
"I am a grassroots person, not an office person."
Williams's sixth-floor office was cleared on Tuesday, sparking speculation that she was considering relinquishing her position on the city's mayoral committee.
"Yes, it is true," she said when contacted by the Cape Times.
Although she declined to say much about her decision, she said she was "very relaxed" and relieved that the two-week floor-crossing period had ended.
"There was lots of speculation. But I have been through floor-crossings before. I stuck to my principles."
Williams had to defend herself at the start of the cross-over against rumours that she had defected to the DA.
"I was appointed by certain parties and promised this position if I crossed."
Williams joined the ID in 2006, after being involved in first the National Party in 1994 and then the New National Party until it merged with the ANC.
As an ID councillor, she served as chairperson of the Mitchells Plain sub-council.
Williams took over as deputy mayor from the ACDP's Andrew Arnolds in January when the DA-led coalition booted the Africa Muslim Party out of the mayoral committee.
Arnolds stepped down to give the ID representation on the executive.
The city council will be reconstituted after the floor-crossing period at a special meeting on Friday.