The ACDP has fired two councillors who voted with opposition parties, including the ANC, to remove the DA’s Vasco da Gama as speaker of Johannesburg’s municipal council.
In a statement prepared for ACDP leader Rev Kenneth Meshoe, which Business Day has seen, the political party said it had fired Rev Ronald Dyers and Dingaan Sithole.
The recent motion of no confidence in Da Gama, which was tabled by the PAC, was passed with 136 votes in favour — including those councillors from the ANC and the African Independent Congress (AIC) and the two ACDP members — while the DA-led coalition that runs the city with the support of ActionSA, Freedom Front Plus, the Patriotic Alliance, the IFP, the ACDP and COPE mustered 132 votes against the motion.
“The ACDP can finally advise the public that the two disciplinary hearings against Sithole and Dyers have been completed. On Friday, the disciplinary panel handed down a sanction for Dyers which was expulsion from the party. The NEC [national executive committee] duly upheld the sanction with effect from September 19, which will run for a period of 12 months,” the ACDP statement reads.
“Dyers then filed his notice of appeal on September 19 which shall be set down in accordance with the party’s rules and procedures. On Wednesday, September 21, the disciplinary panel handed down Sithole’s sanction which was a dismissal. The party has not received any indication that Sithole will appeal the finding.”
Dyers’ appeal “does not suspend the running and the effect of the findings by the disciplinary panel and accordingly, the ACDP shall proceed with the process of replacing the errant councillors”.
Of the 270 council seats at the Joburg city council, 140 are held by the multiparty coalition and the rest by minority parties. Approving the city’s budget and council items — including service delivery programmes — requires a minimum of 136 votes in favour.
Executive mayor Mpho Phalatse said a speaker would be elected at the next council sitting or “as soon as it is reasonably possible”.
The City of Joburg, the country’s biggest metro with a budget of R73.3bn for 2021/2022 and which contributes about 15.6% to SA’s GDP, was taken over by the DA-led coalition after support for the ANC slipped below 50% in the 2021 municipal elections. The EFF voted to install DA mayors in the Gauteng metros of Joburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane.
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