FILE PHOTO: The City of Johannesburg Metro Municipality, the biggest in the country, is a political hotbed with 270-seat council. PICTURE: GovNet
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0 JOHANNESBURG: The motion was passed by 140 to 129 votes at the Johannesburg Council sitting in Braamfontein.
The City of Johannesburg Council has adjourned for the election of a new mayor on Friday morning. The country’s economic hub is for now without a mayor after Dr Mpho Phalatse was ousted on Thursday.
Dr Phalatse was voted out in a motion of no confidence brought before the council by three parties, the African Transformation Movement (ATM), the African Independent Congress (AIC) and Al-Jamah-Ah party.
The motion was passed by 140 to 129 votes at the Johannesburg Council sitting in Braamfontein. This comes after the Democratic Alliances (DA) failed to secure a majority in the council after negotiations with the Patriotic Alliance, a former ally, collapsed.
The DA-led multi-party coalition needed the PA’s eight seats to save Dr Phalatse from being removed as mayor but talks broke down.
Meanwhile, the Action SA believes the DA has thrown Dr Phalatse to the wolves. The party is accusing the DA of aiding the no-confidence motion to remove Dr Phalatse by rejecting a deal it had brokered with the PA.
In a bid to save Dr Phalatse, Action SA gave away two MMC positions to the PA to secure a majority in the council. But the deal was allegedly rejected by the DA despite being widely supported by members of its coalition.
“Let me thank the outgoing mayor for her sterling work and for being a true public servant and for steering this ship under difficult circumstances. She experienced today what Herman [Mashaba] experienced previously. She has been let down by her party,” Action SA Gauteng Chairperson, Mr Bongani Baloyi said.
“The DA has been a consistently reluctant partner. They had no interest in protecting this coalition. We lost today as a coalition because we did not have the majority. PA was going to give us a majority with 8 seats. But, unfortunately, when we had a confirmed deal that the PA was accepting, the DA changed a number of things,” Mr Baloyi said.
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