Political discussions have started in Tshwane as the DA seeks to ensure that its candidate for mayor is elected in the capital city after the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) rejected a Gauteng province appeal and ordered that the council hold an election to appoint its new executive head.
A judgment by the court on Tuesday has paved the way for the city to elect a new mayor, more than eight months after former DA mayor Stevens Mokgalapa resigned. The city council was placed under administration about a month after his resignation.
If the DA can swing the votes to elect its candidate, Randall Williams, which it hopes to do as soon as Friday or early next week, it would have reversed the major loss of losing control of the metro it governed with the help of other political parties after the 2016 local government elections.
Tuesday’s court judgment dealt a blow to the Gauteng provincial government, which took the decision to dissolve the council and place the city under administration in March 2020.
The order given by the high court earlier this year was far-reaching as it not only set aside the decision, but also ordered that a mayor be elected and that ANC and EFF councillors attend meetings and remain in council.
The provincial government applied directly to the Constitutional Court for leave to appeal against that order. Judgment has now been reserved in the matter, but in the meantime the DA has obtained an order to ensure that the earlier order is executed.
It is against this order to execute the earlier one that the provincial government appealed at the supreme court, and lost on Tuesday.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said in a media briefing on Tuesday that the judgment was a “fantastic win for the DA”.
“I am delighted that the judgment has now given the DA the green light to immediately reinstate our government in Tshwane so that we can roll up our sleeves and do what we were elected to do — serve the residents of SA’s capital and bring the DA difference to South Africans,” he said.
Mike Moriarty, DA Gauteng chair, said discussions with the other political parties in the council have already started, and that the initial indicators were that the coalition between the DA, the Freedom Front Plus, Congress of the People and the African Christian Democratic Party was still holding.
While the DA is the largest party in the metro, it does not have enough votes, even with its coalition partners, for a majority in the council. The ANC or the EFF needs to come on board with the DA, abstain from voting or form their own coalition or agreement to elect a mayor.
Moriarty said the DA obviously wants open co-operation with all parties, so there will be constant engagement with the ANC, the EFF and the Pan African Congress. There has been a line of communication with the DA, but by the time of the briefing on Tuesday, his understanding was that the DA had not yet communicated with the EFF.
Steenhuisen said the judgment is not only crucial for Tshwane residents, but also for democracy in SA, “as it has laid bare the desperate and extreme lengths to which the ANC will go to circumvent democratic processes and the constitution, and use their own governments and the courts to cling to power where they have clearly lost the trust of voters at the ballot box”.
Gauteng co-operative governance MEC Lebogang Maile, who led the process to place the city under administration, said an ordinary meeting of the provincial executive council would meet on Wednesday where it is expected to consider the judgment. A “formal and comprehensive response to the judgment” will be made after the meeting.
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