Pretoria - As expected, the EFF and ANC councilors did not show up for a special council sitting in the City of Tshwane, forcing the sitting to collapse.
The meeting, which was scheduled for the election of a new mayor, was attended by only 93 councillors.
The majority of councillors were from the DA, with others from the Freedom Front Plus and one from African Christian Democratic Party. None of the EFF and ANC councillors showed up for the meeting.
Acting Speaker Zweli Khumalo said a council sitting required to have at least 108 councillors present in order for the sitting to be legally constituted.
The DA provincial leader John Moodey said: "We will go back to the drawing board again and in terms of the processes the speaker should call another meeting. In the meantime, the ANC and the EFF can continue with the so-called application to try to put the city under administration."
He shot down suggestions that the attendance by DA councillors was a futile exercise.
"When a person is in government and you have a responsibility to ensure that service delivery continues you have to convene a meeting because ultimately this is not just about the appointment and the election of the mayor," he said.
Moodey blamed the collapse of council on the apparent disagreement between the ANC and EFF over a mayoral candidate.
He said that should both parties have reached an agreement a sitting would have been convened to appoint a new mayor and vote out Speaker Katlego Mathebe.
The meeting was also aimed at extending a contract of former acting city manager Makgorometje Makgatha after it expired last month.
It was also expected to pass an adjustment budget, which was supposed to have been done on February 27.
Moodey said attempts to host council meeting would be used by the DA to argue a case in court regarding steps it took to save the municipality from collapsing.
"At the end of the day when we come before a court of law the judges are going to ask: 'What did you do to ensure that the government continues and function in accordance with the letter of the law?'. We will have to show that from our side we followed those rules and regulations. It is going to be hard for the ANC and the EFF to explain themselves out of that question in a court of law," he said.
ANC regional chairperson Dr Kgosi Maepa said: "It is clear that the DA can easily call a meeting almost every day until the day the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma approves or declines the decision of the Gauteng provincial executive, the DA is allowed to call those meetings daily until then."
He said the ANC has already accepted the decision made by the provincial executive to dissolve council and have fresh elections in Tshwane in line with Section 139 (1) (c) of the Constitution.
Premier David Makhura last week announced the decision to dissolve council and place the metro under administration.
He said the decision was waiting for a concurrence from Dlamini Zuma and NCOP before it could take effect.
Maepa said: "If the DA failed to govern in the last eight months. Why are we so desperate to govern in the last 14 days after the announcement of 139 (1) (c), what's happening."
He said there was consensus among all political pundits in South Africa that the DA failed to govern Tshwane.
The EFF on Monday distanced itself from the meeting, saying its political caucus won't attend it.