By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Minority opposition parties in the City of Johannesburg Council have tabled a motion of no confidence in Mayor Mpho Phalatse.
The first motion is brought by councillor Kabelo Gwamanda and seconded by Thapelo Amad of the Al Jama-Ah party.
Gwamanda believes the mayor “does not care about the residents of Johannesburg” and “has no sense of a strategic direction for the City, and there is no sign of hope under her leadership”.
A second motion will be brought by Margaret Arnolds of the African Independent Congress and seconded by Amad.
The councillor is bringing the motion because she believes Phalatse has failed to “effectively manage a stable government … under her leadership the City … is degenerating and collapsing”.
“We have lost confidence in the executive mayor.”
African Transformation Movement councillor Lubabalo Magwentshu has brought the final motion of no confidence against the mayor, seconded by Moloko Mpolobosho of the African People’s Convention.
The motion claims are the same as the one brought by Gwamanda.
In November last year, Phalatse faced a motion of no confidence proposed by Arnolds. The motion was withdrawn at the 11th hour.
The Demcractic Alliance (DA) in the city of gold has been subjected to several no-confidence motions in the last four months, all tabled by different parties in the council.
DA councillor Vasco Da Gama was ousted from the council speaker chair followed by the party’s Tyrell Meyers who was removed from the chief whip position.
As the situation stands, the ANC and other minority parties stand a great chance of voting Phalatse out of office after a breakdown in talks between the DA-led multiparty coalition and the Patriotic Alliance (PA).
Last week, it was revealed that the PA had been silently negotiating with the multiparty coalition, with talks led by ActionSA leaders Herman Mashaba and Funzi Ngobeni.
The talks were supposed to result in the PA joining the multiparty coalition and the protection of Phalatse from being booted out through a motion of no confidence.
But it appears that the DA’s top leadership scuppered the negotiations, describing the demands made by the PA as ridiculous.
Phalatse was briefly removed from office in September 2022, and replaced by the ANC’s Dada Morero.
After her first removal, she was reinstated within a month following a ruling by the Johannesburg High Court, which found that her removal was unlawful.