Lawyers representing ousted Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse and council speaker Colleen Makhubele slugged it out in the high court in Johannesburg on Wednesday over the former mayor’s ousting.
Phalatse wants the court to declare unlawful and unconstitutional and set aside the decision of the programming committee of the council on September 29 to place a motion of no confidence in her on the agenda for the September 30 meeting.
She also wants the court to declare her the executive mayor, and 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.
“Joburg residents are entitled to a lawfully elected mayor. If the decisions are found to be unlawful, they have to be set aside, there has to be a very strong reason they should not be set aside,” the ousted mayor’s lawyer, Carol Steinberg, said.
Steinberg described Makhubele’s conduct as “dictatorial” for allegedly flouting several council procedures that saw a motion of no confidence passed against Phalatse during an extraordinary council meeting on September 30.
But lawyer for the respondents, Terry Motau, told judge Raylene Keightley that Phalatse’s conduct amounts to “subterfuge” for wanting to be reinstated as Joburg’s first citizen.
Motau, however, agreed with Keightley that the programming committee that met on September 29 to place the motion of no confidence on the council meeting’s agenda for September 30 did not quorate.
Phalatse has argued in court papers that there needed to be at least seven members for a quorum, yet only six were present.
“It’s common cause it [programming committee] did not quorate, but in our submission we state the meeting did not need to quorate,” said Motau.
He called for a “just and equitable solution” to the saga, stressing it would be “unjust” for Keightley to set aside Morero’s appointment as executive mayor.
But Keightley chipped in, saying she did not see how a patently unlawful process that led to the mayor’s removal should be allowed to stand.
Motau told Keightley, who was at times visibly frustrated with his long-winded arguments, she could grant a “structural order that keeps the status quo”, but direct the council to follow council procedures to the letter the next time it wanted to table and discuss a motion of no confidence.
Judgment was reserved.
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