Political analyst Ralph Mathekga has warned that the Democratic Alliance (DA) could also lose the City of Tshwane.
Mathekga says the return of Helen Zille as the DA’s Federal Council chairperson has put the party at a disadvantage.
He says, “The return of Zille is what has weakened the party internally and I think this is one of the reasons why parties such as the EFF are no longer willing to work with the DA. The DA is not in a position to even convince other political parties including minority parties to work with them, so you could say it stems from that, so it is getting bad for the DA. It looks like they might also lose the City of Tshwane, unfortunately it has been triggered by the return of Zille.”
The DA lost the City of Johannesburg to the African National Congress (ANC) on Wednesday, when Geoff Makhubo was appointed as the new mayor of the city.
The Council in the City of Tshwane is set to hold a special meeting on Thursday for a motion of no confidence against the Speaker Katlego Mathebe and Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa.
Mokgalapa came into the spotlight when allegations of a sex scandal and political plotting surfaced last week through an audio recording that went viral on social media.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and ANC then tabled a Motion of No Confidence, which was disallowed by the Speaker last week.
Tshwane has 214 seats, with 92 of those held by the DA, 89 held by the ANC and the EFF seat as the ‘king makers’ with its 25 seats.
Both the EFF and the ANC had previously indicated they would work together to oust the DA’s Mokgalapa.
