"Councillors of the Abaqulusi Municipality today successfully elected Mr Sipho Basil Dlodlo as its new Speaker," Rev. Musa Zondi, IFP Spokesperson said.

"We congratulate Mr Dlodlo on his election as Speaker of the Abaqulisi Municipality. We also thank each and every IFP Councillor for their resilience, which made this election possible in spite of a highly provocative situation", Zondi said.

Zondi pointed out that the election of the Speaker happened in spite of a well laid out plan by the ANC and some expelled IFP former Councillors to disrupt today's proceedings.

"We suspect that one of their plans was to fill up the Council Chamber and gallery with rowdy and disruptive members of the public, who were allowed in as early as 07h30 this morning by the Municipal Manager, Mr Bamba Ndwandwe. We are happy that this plan was finally defeated and crushed and the election went ahead without further hitches, even though it finally took place about 3 hours later than the appointed time," said Zondi.

"The election of the Speaker now means that the process is out of the hands of the Municipal Manager and it also means that the appointment of the Administrator by Minister Mabuyakhulu will be kept at bay. Councillors will also meet tomorrow at a specially convened meeting to elect the Mayor, Deputy and members of the Executive Committee" Zondi said.