No-confidence motion against Joburg mayor going ahead despite court action

The City of Johannesburg council is forging ahead with its special sitting to debate a motion of no confidence in mayor Mpho Phalatse despite an urgent court interdict.

“We will proceed until the court order comes,” speaker Colleen Makhubele told TimesLIVE on Friday.

Phalatse has filed an urgent motion urging the court to declare Friday’s sitting unlawful, invalid, null and void.

She also wants the court to declare the programme committee on Thursday that decided on the sitting’s programme did not quorate, and its decisions to go ahead with the council sitting was unlawful, invalid and “of no force and effect”.

“The council meeting convened by the notices and scheduled for September 30 at 10am is ordered and directed not to take place,” the interdict reads.

The newly elected speaker, Cope’s Makhubele, called a special council sitting two days after her election. There have been questions about whether such a decision was lawful as there should be a 72-hour notice period.

The no-confidence motion against Phalatse is part of the ANC’s takeover of the city to install the party’s caucus leader, Dada Morero, as mayor.

The coalition, which includes the EFF, UDM and AIC, successfully installed Makhubele as speaker on Wednesday with the help of the Patriotic Alliance, which ditched the DA-led coalition. Makhubele received 141 votes, and the DA’s Alex Christians received 129.

Her election followed the ousting of DA speaker Vasco da Gama earlier this month.

The PA is expected to vote for the motion of no confidence on Friday. Their decision to jump from the DA ship came after the DA refused calls from ActionSA and the PA to give the speaker position to one of their coalition partners, preferably the IFP.

While Phalatse has pleaded with the city’s residents to keep her in office, the DA has maintained its decision to refuse the requests to hand over the speaker position was correct. The party said there was a coalition agreement, and calls by ActionSA were in violation of the agreement.

“The DA rejects the vitriolic and false claims made by representatives of ActionSA, the PA and Cope blaming the DA for the failure of the City of Johannesburg coalition to elect a speaker in the council meeting yesterday [Wednesday],” DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga said on Thursday.

“It beggars belief that Herman Mashaba, whose party initiated the entire process by violating the coalition agreement to call for the renegotiation of previously agreed upon positions, claims to be a victim of arrogance and bullying. The scale of Mashaba’s dishonesty in triggering the process and then seeking to blame the DA raises a credible suspicion that he is actively undermining the coalition to score cheap political points.”

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.