High Court declares planned City of Johannesburg Council meeting invalid, null and void

An Extra Ordinary Council meeting of the City of Johannesburg municipality, scheduled for Tuesday morning, has been interdicted from taking place and is declared to be invalid, null and void.

That’s the ruling of the Johannesburg High Court –  copies of which were sent out to lawyers on Monday night.

The court ruling also declares Cope councilor Colleen Makhubele not to be the Acting Speaker of the Council.

Speaker

Makhubele took over as Acting Speaker after Democratic Alliance (DA) Councillor Vasco da Gama was ousted in a vote of no confidence during a Council meeting on August 31.

She has been putting out herself as Acting Speaker ever since and even issued a notice for a meeting that was to be held on Tuesday morning to elect a Speaker.

Johannesburg Mayor

There were also reports the meeting had been called to oust Johannesburg Mayor, Mpho Phalatse, in a no-confidence vote.

The High Court has not only declared Tuesdays planned meeting invalid, null and void but also declared Makhubele from being acting Joburg council speaker.

She is also interdicted from holding herself out or as purporting to be exercising any statutory function of acting speaker for council.

The @CityofJoburgZA has won its High Court case.

The notice issued for a sitting of Council has been declared “invalid, null & void.”

Furthermore, there is currently no Acting Speaker.

The Respondent has also been hit with a costs order.

This is a victory for the rule of law.

— Executive Mayor Mpho Phalatse (@mphophalatse1) September 12, 2022

Motion of no confidence

Last week, the African National Congress (ANC) in Johannesburg threw its weight behind the looming motion of no confidence against Phalatse.

ANC Regional Chairperson, Dada Morero accused Phalatse of failing to deliver services in the Metro.

The minority parties, including the African Independent Congress (AIC), African Transformation Movement (ATM), Congress of the People (COPE), United Democratic Movement (UDM), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) and Al Jama-ah, plan to bring a motion of no confidence in Phalatse.

Morero said the Democratic Alliance (DA) has neglected the townships.

“Residents of Soweto, of Johannesburg, will tell you that she has not done a good job. Everything in Soweto has collapsed. There’s no robot that works in Soweto, if they work, it’s maybe two or three. The potholes are increasing in Soweto. No interest to address townships but everything else in the suburbs seems to be going very well. Everything in the townships is not going well. So it also tells you in terms of their ideological orientation such as that, let’s first deal with our own constituencies and the rest shall follow.”

VIDEO: ACDP leader Reverend Kenneth Meshoe on ousting of City of Joburg Speaker Vasco Da Gama:

Additional reporting by Zoleka Qodashe.