Mayoral fight is not over - DA
“IF IT wasn’t so serious, it would be laughable.” This is how Gauteng DA MPL Solly Msimanga described the ousting of Mpho Phalatse from her mayoral seat.
The executive mayor of the City of Johannesburg was removed from office in terms of Section 58 of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act of 1998. But Msimanga said the fight was far from over.
“The DA, however, will continue with its court action to prevent the election of a new mayor and ensure that this railroad tactic by the speaker and her allies is brought to a halt and sanity prevails,” Msimanga said.
Party leader John Steenhuisen said the ousting of Phalatse had destabilised the City and slammed the move as “the ANC’S desperation to get their hands on tenders and contracts from Johannesburg’s R76 billion budget”.
He said the party firmly believed that what transpired in the council meeting yesterday was “unlawful and unprocedural”.
“The sitting was little more than a sham and the speaker, on debut, showed she is neither competent nor capable of managing a council meeting in the prescribed manner. Mayor Mpho Phalatse has been the target of a co-ordinated attack, not because she has done anything wrong, but because she has done everything right,” he said.
On the issue of coalitions, Steenhuisen said: “I give you my word today that the DA will never give your vote away to a coalition without a binding written agreement that ensures good governance and service delivery. Treachery will not stand. Subterfuge will not hold. And we will not succumb to the politics of extortion and blackmail.”
Meanwhile, new Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero yesterday promised the city’s residents that he had a plan to end load shedding.
Morero, who is the ANC’S Johannesburg regional chairperson, was elected unopposed to lead the country’s economic hub as its first citizen after nearly a dozen opposition parties succeeded in their vote of no confidence in Phalatse.
The ANC, which has the most councillors in the Joburg council, was helped by the EFF, Patriotic Alliance, African Independent Congress, Al Jama-ah, Cope, African Heart Congress, the PAC and African People’s Convention (APC) as well as the GOOD Party.
The vote of no confidence in Phalatse was carried by 139 of Joburg’s 270 councillors. The IFP abstained while none of the councillors present voted against the motion.
Council speaker Colleen Makhubele, who was elected earlier this week, then opened nominations for the position of mayor.
Only two nominations were received, with one found to be spoiled and non-compliant.
GOOD Party councillor Lloyd Phillips nominated Morero, seconded by APC councillor Moloko Mpolobosho.
“If only one candidate has been nominated the person presiding must declare that candidate elected,” Makhubele said, declaring Morero the new mayor.
In his acceptance speech, Morero undertook to help tackle the electricity crisis that has hit the whole country.
“Joburg cannot continue to function in darkness when we have the experience of resolving this problem. We have done it before and we can do it again,” he said.
Morero said his administration would have an energy sustainability strategy that would ensure the delivery of conventional power and integrate new distributed energy generation and energy storage facilities into the energy mix.
”The City must integrate new alternative energy sources together with the energy storage systems to reduce load shedding throughout the City of Johannesburg,” he said. In addition, Morero assured Johannesburgers that the new energy mix was designed to relieve the pressure on Eskom.
Responding to her ousting, Phalatse vowed to continue fighting what she described as a corrupt cabal.
”We will fight for you, we will fight to see our city rebuilt again. We will not leave this to this corrupt cabal. What happened today was an injustice, was unlawful,” she said.
The DA announced that it would continue with its court action to prevent the election of a new mayor.
”We are just waiting for the courts to redeem the residents of Johannesburg from what has happened here today. We believe in our judicial system. We believe that justice will be served for our six million residents,” Phalatse said.