By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African National Congress (ANC) has temporarily withdrawn its motion of no confidence in City of Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink.
This follows a high court challenge by Brink on Thursday, challenging the lawfulness of the motion.
ANC Tshwane secretary George Matjila said the withdrawal is only temporary, as another motion would be tabled in September.
“We are respecting the legal issues that are pending, and within a period of two weeks, we think we’ll be able to come back and conclude the business.
“We’ve agreed in principle that the motion that has been put is going to be temporarily withdrawn so that we deal with the side issues that are creating an impediment for all of us,” he said.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes Brink was not given sufficient time to consider the motion, saying he has the right to a fair opportunity to take steps to defend himself adequately.
DA Tshwane spokesperson Kwena Moloto said they want the motion to be declared unlawful.
“We believe that this motion would be unlawful and that there is case law that speaks against urgent motions of no confidence in mayors and that a mayor should have the opportunity to analyse the reason behind a motion being submitted and should have the opportunity to respond.
“Motions of no confidence shouldn’t be used as a political tool. We’ve seen the chaos that motions of no confidence have.”
Meanwhile ActionSA in Tshwane has announced it will be joining the ANC, EFF and ACDP to vote out Brink.
The four parties held an impromptu press briefing outside Tshwane House on Thursday afternoon, where the announcement was made.
Matjila said the parties held a meeting and agreed to vote in favour of removing Brink through a motion of no confidence. He said smaller parties in council would also vote with them.
If ActionSA joins the ANC and EFF, with the help of the smaller parties, they will have a comfortable majority in the council.
ActionSA’s regional chairperson Jackie Mathabathe confirmed that the party would be voting with the ANC and EFF to remove the DA-led coalition that they are still currently a part of.
Mathabathe said: “As ActionSA, we are busy with the review, as we’ve always said, but to be boldly honest with everyone, we have consulted our structures on the ground. Gauteng as a whole has given us a mandate to say we must get out of this coalition, and this is exactly what is going to happen.”
The current composition of the Tshwane council is as follows: the ANC holds 75 seats, the DA has 69, the EFF holds 23, and ActionSA has 19.
The FF Plus follows with 17 seats, while the ACDP has two.
The AIC, ATM, Cope, Good, IFP, Patriotic Alliance (PA), Republican Conference of Tshwane (RC), Defenders of the People (DOP), and the Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) each have one seat.