DA councillor Mpho Phalatse resumed her mayoral duties on Tuesday after the high court set aside her unlawful ousting as Johannesburg mayor.
Phalatse’s reinstatement as the first citizen of SA’s richest and biggest metro is immediate and she told 24-hour news channel eNCA that she was heading for her office soon after the judgment on Tuesday.
The Johannesburg metro, together with the cities of Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, have been led by DA-led multiparty coalitions since the 2021 municipal elections, when the ANC’s support fell below 50% for the first time.
The City of Joburg, which has 13 entities under it, 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.
Phalatse challenged her removal before the high court on October 19, saying the motion of no confidence in her at a September 30 extraordinary council meeting was unlawful because the meeting was not quorate.
She asked judge Raylene Keightley to set aside her removal and to declare her the executive mayor. She also wanted the court to declare unlawful the election of ANC caucus leader Dada Morero as executive mayor and all decisions he took during his short stint as mayor.
In the judgment dated October 25, Keightley said the decision taken by the council of Joburg to adopt a motion of no confidence in Phalatse was unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid. “The first applicant [Phalatse] is declared to be the executive mayor of the City of Johannesburg.”
Keightley ruled that all decisions taken by Morero as the executive mayor of Johannesburg were unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid.
Soon after the ruling Morero announced on his Facebook page that he was stepping aside as the executive mayor.
“The first respondent [the speaker of the City of Johannesburg] is directed to pay the costs of the application, including the costs of two counsel, one being senior counsel,” the ruling read.
Joburg council speaker Colleen Makhubele told Business Day recently that if the court ruled in Phalatse’s favour, the council would simply call another special council meeting and have the same outcome.
“So for them it’s a futile exercise,” Makhubele said.
Phalatse’s unlawful removal underscored the instability of coalition governments, which political pundits say are more about clinging to power than addressing service delivery challenges.
But her victory could be short-lived. A legal analyst on Tuesday said all her opponents need to do is to appeal against Tuesday’s judgment.
Advocate Zola Majavu said the respondents, including Morero and Makhubele, had a right to bring an application for leave to appeal Keightley’s ruling. “If they [do so] it suspends [Tuesday’s] judgment until the appeal process is finalised,” Majavu said.
“They have 14 days to do so [appeal the judgment] but I don’t think they will wait for 14 days, I suspect tonight [Tuesday] or tomorrow [Wednesday] morning they are going to bring an application for leave to appeal.”
Nelson Mandela University political analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast said Phalatse’s unlawful removal spoke to the instability of coalition governments, which affected service delivery.
“You can’t promote development when you have a threat of instability [hanging over your head], that affects the capabilities of bureaucrats to get the job done. This hampers service delivery and affects voter turnout,” Breakfast said.
Joleen Steyn Kotze, a senior research specialist in democracy at the Human Sciences Research Council and a University of Free State political analyst, said there were a number of ways to look at the implications of Tuesday’s court judgment.
It appeared courts were being used as a means to political expediency, which she said took the focus away from local government’s development mandate.
ActionSA national chair Michael Beaumont said in a statement it welcomed the court judgment reinstating the coalition government.
“While ActionSA welcomes this court outcome, it does not change the dynamics of instability that led to the collapse. This leaves the ball squarely in the DA’s court to demonstrate their commitment to multiparty coalitions providing an alternative to failed ANC governance.
“The return of our multiparty coalition government could be a technical event that lasts a day or a week, or it could see the return of the multiparty coalition for the next four years, keeping the ANC in the opposition benches.
“In this regard, the DA must decide whether it is willing to re-engage its former coalition partners and secure enough support to sustain a government, or whether it has given up on the coalition and surrendered the residents of Johannesburg to four more years of ANC governance,” Beaumont said.
Update: October 25 2022
This article has been updated with new information.
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