City of Joburg Speaker, Colleen Makhubele, facing a motion of no confidence

ActionSA says it intends to bring forward a motion of no confidence against the City of Johannesburg Speaker, Colleen Makhubele.

The party has based its motion on the Johannesburg High Court’s judgment, which saw the reinstatement of the City’s mayor Mpho Phalatse on 25 October, following her removal.

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The high court ruled Makhubele’s decision, taken on 29 September, to schedule an extraordinary meeting of council to vote on the motion of no confidence in Phalatse the following day was unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid.

Judge Raylene Keightley also set aside the election of the ANC Joburg regional chair Dada Morero as mayor, while Makhubele was ordered to pay the costs of the DA’s urgent application, including the costs of two counsels.

‘Partial and fair’

Speaking to Newzroom Afrika on Thursday, ActionSA Johannesburg caucus leader Zark Lebatlang said Makhubele, who is a councillor for the Congress of the People (Cope), has failed to act in the best interests of the City.

“We even in our experiences in council believe the Speaker should be somebody who is partial, somebody who should be fair and make sure that all political parties feel free within council. Certain utterances that the Speaker has made on social media platforms and [during] interviews has been a great concern for us,” he said.

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Lebatlang said the multiparty coalition would consult with other political parties in the City of Joburg to get them to support ActionSA’s motion.

“Politics nowadays, with the coalition arrangement, is all about engaging with parties, ensuring that people get to a common cause. Where fit and where legal issues are presented to various parties, and they agree to our persuasion, we can make sure that this motion passes through council.”

Makhubele was previously suspended by Cope’s interim provincial committee in Gauteng before she was elected as Speaker on 28 September, replacing DA’s Vasco da Gama.

She, however, insisted that she was not going anywhere because she had the support of Cope’s national leadership.

‘Financial crisis’

Another motion of no confidence against Phalatse will be tabled before the City’s programming committee on 14 November.

The ANC had submitted a new motion, but it was later withdrawn after the DA threatened legal action.

The DA had planned to interdict the City’s council sitting which may have voted Phalatse out of office again.

Reacting to the move, minority parties – part of the ANC-led coalition in a media briefing on Monday, criticised the DA and ActionSA for using the courts to run the Joburg metro.

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The parties cited a “financial crisis” within the City as one of its reason to file a new motion.

Morero said last week, that the City was on the verge of financial ruin and predicated that municipal workers would not be paid in January.

Although Phalatse denied Morero’s claims, the Joburg mayor conceded that she has asked the council to sit urgently to approve a R2 billion short-term loan from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) because the City was at great financial risk.

Additional reporting by Lunga Mzangwe