DA to hold special meeting on coalition woes
• Party may lose Tshwane as EFF goes after Msimanga
The DA will on Wednesday morning hold a special sitting of its federal executive to consider the status of its coalition governments amid attempts by opposition parties to unseat it in two metros. The party said on Tuesday it would approach the courts to review the vote of no confidence which ousted Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip.
The DA will on Wednesday morning hold a special sitting of its federal executive to consider the status of its coalition governments amid attempts by opposition parties to unseat it in two metros.
The party said on Tuesday it would approach the courts to review the vote of no confidence which ousted Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip.
The EFF, which voted for the DA-led coalition after the 2016 local elections, has turned against the party in Tshwane and wants mayor Solly Msimanga out. The EFF and the ANC have tabled two separate motions of no confidence in the mayor which are set to be heard on Thursday.
The DA now could lose two of the three mayoral seats it obtained through coalitions in the metros of Tshwane, Nelson Mandela Bay and Johannesburg.
Msimanga, Trollip and DA leader Mmusi Maimane addressed media conferences after the shock move which saw Trollip voted out in a motion of no confidence on Monday.
Maimane said the entire process in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro was “a sham”.
Msimanga said he did not know if the DA could avert Thursday’s motion of no confidence and acknowledged that if the ANC and the EFF voted against him, he would be voted out as mayor of Tshwane.
The three biggest parties in the metro make up the majority of the seats. The DA has 93 seats in the council, the ANC 89, while the EFF has 25. For a majority in the council, parties need 108 seats, which leaves the EFF in a key position to oust Msimanga.
Msimanga said the motion against him, which will take place about a week after the city voted to serve city manager Moeketsi Mosola with a notice of intention of suspension, was “inexplicable”, adding that serious questions had to be asked about the EFF in Tshwane on the matter.
The decision to suspend Mosola related to serious allegations in the procurement of project management services with GladAfrica. Msimanga on Tuesday attempted to set the record straight about allegations made about him by the ANC in Tshwane.
He said he was told about service providers who had been appointed to assist the project management unit. He said the name GladAfrica did not come up. He said Mosola never reported on contract amounts, percentages, limits or detailed work specification to be done.
Meanwhile in Johannesburg, EFF leader Julius Malema said the EFF was unapologetic about removing Trollip from office and warned that the same fate would befall Msimanga.
Malema said the same “arrogance” which was seen in Nelson Mandela Bay was present in Tshwane, where “the white caucus of the DA conducts itself as if they too possess an absolute majority, when in fact they possess absolute arrogance.”
“What happened to Athol Trollip is going to happen to Solly Msimanga, who has elected to not only disregard consultation with other parties in the crucial running of the city, but also allows white racists who are exposed for taking jobs without the necessary qualifications to retaliate and punish the black city manager for exposing them,” Malema said, referring to qualification scandals in Msimanga’s office which saw most prominently his chief of staff Marietha Aucamp resign earlier this year after it emerged she was not qualified for the job.