Mayoral Committee System (Mayco)
In terms of the Municipal Structures Act of 1998, the City of Cape Town has opted for the mayoral committee system also known as the Mayco system whereby executive authority is vested in the executive mayor, who in turn chooses an 11-member mayoral committee, which is composed of councillors from the city council. The Mayco system was adopted by the previous ANC city council administration under the leadership of former executive mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo in 2003 after the Western Cape provincial government introduced the system in all municipal structures in the province.
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Background
However prior to this, the executive committee system (Exco) was enacted in the Western Cape after the December 2000 local government elections. As opposed to the Mayco system in which executive authority is vested in the executive mayor, under an Exco system, power is vested in a collective 10-member committee that is directly elected by the council in proportion to party representation (any party with a 10% representation is entitled to an Exco seat). Under this system the mayor, who is also directly elected by council, must be a member of the Exco and only has ceremonial powers.
In December 2000 local government elections the Democratic Alliance won an outright majority, and Peter Marais of the DA became the first unicity mayor who was also elected to the Exco, which in turn consisted of 10 DA councillors after the ANC boycotted participation despite the fact that it was entitled to three seats to protest the DA taking the powerful portfolios leaving the less significant ones for the African National Congress. However, when Gerald Morkel became mayor in November 2001 and joined the Exco, the ANC insisted on the three posts in the Exco in order to frustrate the DA's hold on the city.
In October 2002, after the first floor-crossing window resulted in the mass exodus of DA councillors throughout the country rejoining the NNP, the DA city administration collapsed when 32 DA councillors defected and formed coalition with the African National Congress. When the ANC-NNP coalition took over Nomaindia Mfeketo became the Exco mayor with the executive committee (Exco) consisting of 5 ANC, 2 NNP and 3 DA members.
In March 2003, the Exco system was replaced with a Mayco system and Nomaindia Mfeketo was elected the first executive mayor of Cape Town. She in turn appointed the first mayoral committee (Mayco) which consisted entirely of members of her governing ANC-NNP coalition, thus excluding the DA.
Helen Zille of the Democratic Alliance was elected Mayor by the city council following the local government elections in March 2006. While the DA won the most seats in the city council, it did not win an outright majority, which resulted in the formation of the Multi-Party Government coalition. As a result, mayor Helen Zille appointed a mayoral committee (Mayco) that consisted of 11 members: 5 from the DA and 1 each from the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Africa Muslim Party (AMP), United Democratic Movement (UDM), United Independent Front (UIF), and the Universal Party (UP). In January 2007, the AMP withdrew and was replaced by 1 member of the Independent Democrats (ID). Elizabeth Thompson of the UIF defected to the DA during the September 2007 floor-crossing window.
The ACDP and UP were later dumped from the mayoral committee in 2009 following the general elections, leaving a coalition of DA, ID and UDM.
Current Mayco leadership
On 29 April 2009, Helen Zille resigned from the Mayoralty and the City Council due to her election as Premier of the Western Cape. Dan Plato was elected as Executive Mayor by the Council on 13 May 2009. Ian Neilson was elected as Executive Deputy Mayor on 27 May 2009.