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City of Joburg drama far from over as Mpho Phalatse faces another no confidence motion
The DA member only returned to the helm of the city this week.
Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse during a press conference held at the DA offices in Bruma, 10 October 2022. Picture: Neil McCartney / The Citizen
A motion of no confidence in City of Joburg mayor, Dr Mpho Phalatse has once again placed on the metro’s agenda.
This as an extraordinary council meeting is scheduled to sit on Thursday next week.
Phalatse returned to the helm of the city this week after winning her bid in challenging her removal as the metro’s mayor at the end of September.
The new motion has been brought forward by the African National Congress (ANC), after Dada Morero was removed as mayor.
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The Johannesburg High Court ruled on Tuesday that Morero had obtained the position unlawfully and unconstitutionally.
The court also ordered City of Joburg Speaker Colleen Makhubele to pay the costs of the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) urgent application, including the costs of two counsels.
Despite this, the ANC has chosen not to appeal the decision of the court, but to rather embark on another motion of no confidence process.
The DA this week re-affirmed its position not to work with the EFF in the City of Joburg, with the party’s federal council chair Helen Zille insisting that the party do so due to the Red Berets’ views on white people.
Zille labelled the EFF a racist party.
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The DA had lost control of the city after Phalatse was voted out on 30 September through a motion of no confidence brought by minority parties and backed by the ANC.
On the same day, Phalatse’s urgent interdict to stop the metro’s council meeting was struck off the court roll.
Another mayor voted out
Meanwhile, Tania Campbell was also removed as mayor of Ekurhuleni through a motion of no confidence this week.
Campbell was ousted by 100 votes.
While the EFF abstained from voting, 93 councillors voters in favour of Campbell remaining in office.
The ANC, which brought on the motion of no confidence, accused the DA member of neglecting service delivery for residents in the metropolitan.
The DA doesn’t care
Before voting, councillors debated on the motion with ANC caucus chief whip Jongizizwe Dlabathi insisting that the DA has failed to govern in Ekurhuleni.
“To date, communities in Ekurhuleni are feeling the pinch of insensitive tariffs and many beginning to express a sense of a DA-led coalition that [doesn’t care].
“The general sentiment is that the situation is dire, particularly, if you look at the overall state of service delivery in the city,” he said.
READ MORE: ‘Our job is far from done,’ says Campbell following removal as Ekurhuleni mayor
Meanwhile, DA deputy chief whip Khathutshelo Rasilingwane, said that the ANC was just being power hungry.
“The ANC caucus will try to convince residents that we inherited a well-run city and that within the past year, the coalition has failed to deliver when the actual fact that they have done this [metro] very badly,” Ralisingwane said.
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