Tense day as DA faces losing both Tshwane and Joburg metros
As Herman Mashaba’s tenure as Johannesburg mayor comes to an end a little more than three years after he was elected to lead the hung council of SA’s biggest municipality, the DA faces losing both metros it governs through coalitions in Gauteng.
It has been more than a month since Mashaba announced his resignation from the DA and as mayor at a media conference in which he trashed the party. He did what few SA politicians dare do: walk away from an extremely powerful position based, at least at face value, on principle.
While the DA’s focus was on the election of Mashaba’s successor at a Johannesburg council meeting on Thursday, the wheels came off in Tshwane, as new mayor Stevens Mokgalapa was embroiled in a “sex scandal” and placed on special leave, reports BusinessLIVE.
Mokgalapa will face an urgent motion of no confidence, also on Thursday, which could see the DA losing its second mayor in Tshwane since 2016. Its first, Solly Msimanga, resigned earlier in 2019 to focus on what became his unsuccessful bid to become the DA’s first premier in Gauteng.
It is set to be a tense day in the two councils for the DA, as there are no guarantees the party will hold on to either of the mayoral positions.
Out of the three hung metros it took control of through coalition agreements after the 2016 local government elections, Tshwane and Johannesburg remained in its grip. The DA lost control of Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape in 2018, after former mayor Athol Trollip was voted out in a motion of no confidence.
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