By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
DA leader John Steenhuisen has announced that his party will challenge the removal of Mpho Phalatse as the mayor of Johannesburg in the courts.
Steenhuisen said Phalatse’s ouster, through a motion of no confidence during a council sitting on Friday, was unlawful and unprocedural.
The DA leader briefed the media on Friday evening after Phalatse was voted out of office by a minority of small parties led by the ANC.
Phalatse, who had served as Joburg mayor through a multiparty coalition led by the DA since the 2021 local government elections, was replaced by the ANC’s Johannesburg regional chair Dada Morero.
Steenhuisen called the ninth extraordinary sitting of the council a “kangaroo-style council meeting” completed through “nefarious tactics”.
“After months of efforts to destabilise coalitions across the country, today the ANC succeeded in seizing control of Johannesburg. I warned precisely a few weeks ago that this is what is transpiring in the background. The ANC’s desperation to get their hands on tenders and contracts from Johannesburg’s R76 billion budget is now clear for all to see,” he said.
He went on to call out those who went against the coalition.
“This very unfortunate sequence of events started with an unprovoked motion of no confidence against our speaker, Vasco da Gama.”
Steenhuisen said the terms of the signed coalition agreement were that the speaker’s position be filled in Johannesburg by the DA.
“But due to the treachery of individual members of coalition partners, Vasco was voted out. We are grateful to all our coalition partners – except Cope – who acted swiftly to expel their rogue members.
“After our prescribed processes, the DA re-nominated Vasco [da Gama] to fill the vacant position. On receiving resistance from coalition partners, we were willing to be flexible on the candidate and nominate an alternate, Alex Christians.”
He said the DA was further disappointed that ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba had “chosen to consistently attack the DA rather than call out the ANC for their desperate efforts to destabilise opposition coalitions across the country.”
“His media onslaught against the DA today is little more than an attempt to steer the blame for this collapse away from where it truly belongs.
“While pointing fingers at the DA, Mashaba has been instrumental in destroying the coalition from within and was not even present in many coalition meetings with the party leaders to resolve the issues,” Steenhuisen said.