DA councillor Mpho Phalatse — who was removed as executive mayor of SA’s richest and biggest metro of Johannesburg — has launched a court bid to overturn the council meeting that voted to oust her on Friday.
In court papers, which Business Day has seen, Phalatse wants the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to declare unlawful, unconstitutional, invalid and set aside the decision taken by council speaker Colleen Makhubele on Thursday last week, to schedule an extraordinary meeting of council for Friday, where the decision to oust her through a motion of no confidence was adopted.
Phalatse wants the court to declare unlawful and unconstitutional and set aside the decision of the programming committee of the council on Thursday to place a motion of no confidence in her on the agenda for Friday’s meeting.
She also wants the court to declare her the executive mayor, and declare the election of ANC caucus leader Dada Morero as executive mayor unlawful and set aside, including all decisions taken by Morero during his stint as mayor.
The court is also asked to direct Makhubele, in her personal capacity, to pay the costs of the application, including the costs of two counsel. The matter is expected to be heard on Tuesday.
Phalatse’s removal speaks to the instability of coalition governments, which political analysts say are shrouded in secrecy and are more about clinging to power than addressing service delivery challenges, and were not established on principled foundations or ideology.
Phalatse became the first female mayor of Joburg when the ANC lost the city in the 2021 municipal elections together with the metros of Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, when its support fell below the 50% mark for the first time since 1994. That led to the loss of Gauteng metros to a DA-led multiparty coalition.
Morero told Business Day on Monday: “My team is already in the [mayor’s] office. I will be fully in the office on Wednesday.”
In a statement on Tuesday, Phalatse said: “We will not stand by while the ANC and its allies use corrupt means to grab power. This follows from what DA leader John Steenhuisen announced on Friday that the DA was not done in Johannesburg and that it would continue to fight the forces that put their own greedy agendas ahead of the needs of the citizens of this country.”
She said the DA would focus its attention on “regaining the City of Johannesburg and stop the ANC and its partners in the coalition of corruption from looting the city a second time and again paying no heed to the needs of the residents”.
The Joburg municipality, which has 13 entities, a population of about 6-million and a budget of R77.3bn for the 2022/2023 financial year, contributes about 15.6% to SA’s national GDP.
“The DA is well aware of the anger and frustration residents may be feeling ,especially if your vote was one of those sold to get the ANC back, but rest assured that the DA will not back down or give in. We expect the matter to be heard on Tuesday,” Phalatse said.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.