The Johannesburg City Council has adjourned for the election of a new mayor on Friday morning. This after Dr Mpho Phalatse was ousted as Executive Mayor of Johannesburg on Thursday.
She was voted out in a motion of no confidence. The motion was tabled by three parties, the African Transformation Movement (ATM), 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 council after negotiations with the Patriotic Alliance, a former ally, collapsed.
The DA-led multi-party coalition needed the Patriotic Alliance’s eight seats to save Phalatse from being removed as mayor. But talks broke down.
‘Throw to the wolves’
Action SA believes the DA has thrown Phalatse to the wolves. The party is accusing the DA of aiding the no-confidence motion to remove Phalatse by rejecting a deal it had brokered with the Patriotic Alliance.
In a bid to save 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 Democratic Alliance despite being widely supported by members of its coalition.
Action SA’s Bongani Baloyi says, “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. 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.”
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