COUNCIL CRISIS
Ousted Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse ‘reaching out’ to former coalition parties in bid to mend bridges
The former mayor believes it is not the end of the road for the multiparty coalition in the City of Johannesburg.
Ousted City of Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse said on Wednesday she would not only fight to be reinstated, but also to reunite the coalition partners who were governing the city.
“It is a pity that some, who have abandoned the coalition, have now given power back to the ANC. This is not what their voters wanted, and I call upon them to reconsider,” she said.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “ ‘Give me 18 to 36 months’, says Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse to residents buckling under endless blackouts”
Phalatse addressed the media for the first time since she was booted from her position on Friday, 30 September.
“There is a political battle to be fought too. A battle to appeal to the senses of political parties who genuinely care about our city and its residents. Parties whose voters tasked them with ensuring that the ANC does not get its hands on their rates and taxes. These parties have an obligation to their voters. A duty to rise above party politics, to choose to enter the fight, joining hands with others to keep the ANC out.
“I will be reaching out even as we prepare for the court battle. Crucial conversations must be had, but at the centre of these should be our residents, the reason we are all here. Coalition governance is not easy. However, we have no option but to make it work. We cannot give up now.
“We either make this coalition work, or we give the ANC a licence to loot. I look forward to being part of a coalition of like-minded political parties, and to serving you, the residents of Johannesburg, playing my part in rebuilding this incredible city,” she said.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Corruption and maladministration allegations levelled against DA-led administration in City of Joburg”
The multiparty coalition in the City of Joburg completely collapsed after Phalatse was removed as mayor. The coalition consisted of the DA, ActionSA, the IFP, the Freedom Front Plus, the Patriotic Alliance (PA), the ACDP, Cope, the United Independent Movement and the African Transformation Movement. Phalatse was ousted by 139 councillors including those from the PA, and Dada Morero was installed as executive mayor.
ActionSA had led the charge to have an IFP member elected as Speaker and was supported by all other coalition partners except the DA, which rejected the proposal and wanted its candidate, Alex Christians, to replace Vasco da Gama.
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This did not sit well with the other parties and led to the PA abandoning the coalition and voting with the ANC, the EFF and minority parties to install Colleen Makhubele as council Speaker.
The PA was triggered by the letter the coalition technical task team had received from DA Federal Council chairperson Helen Zille and her deputy, Thomas Walters, in which she made it categorically clear that the DA would not support the reconfiguration of the coalition. Another spanner in the works came in the form of DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga’s opinion piece in which he particularly looked at the state of coalitions.
ActionSA stated that it would take a break from working with the DA in the city, but would be willing to continue its partnership in Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.
Since her removal, Phalatse has launched a court bid to set aside Speaker Makhubele’s decision to hold an extraordinary council meeting, and the programming meeting’s decision to place the motion against her on the agenda. She is urging the courts to declare the adoption of the motion and Morero’s appointment as mayor invalid.
Read more in Daily Maverick: “Joburg council drama dents national cooperation flirtations — and heralds post-2024 deal-making”
This comes after her bid to have the sitting interdicted was struck off the roll by the Johannesburg High Court on Friday. The court reasoned that Phalatse had already been ousted before the matter could be heard virtually.
Phalatse said the recent events in the Johannesburg Council had dealt a major blow to the progress made by the multiparty coalition since January.
“I believe that [the council] sitting was a sham, and the decisions taken there were unlawful. I believe a court will soon confirm this view. As far as I’m concerned, I still have a duty of service to the residents of Johannesburg — a duty which I intend to perform to the best of my ability.
“I love this great city, and I love its people. My term of office, to date, has been both the hardest and the most rewarding time of my life, and I know we’ve made a positive difference here.
“There is no way that I will back down now, at the first sign of adversity at the hands of a takeover by a corrupt few. I made promises to the people of Joburg before last year’s elections, and I repeated those promises when I took office in January. I have every intention of keeping my promises.” DM
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One “builds” bridges and mends fences and not the other way around. For the attention of the Sub-editors.
It is so sad when principles trump practicality. It is often the conundrum faced by folk in a political party who do not agree with a direction/policy taken by the leadership and they have 2 courses of action. Stay and fight the direction/policy from within or leave and fight from without. The latter course has proven disastrous in just about every case. Zille is coming over as authoritarian, inflexible and yes arrogant without showing a shred of political nous. Its cost Joburg DA a chance of maybe winning Joburg at the next election because they will not be able to show what they could achieve now, and Zille can claim she stood by her agreement principles – hooray as the ship sinks. How profoundly sad for SA politics – TG I am out of it.
The DA has the basic structure to potentially be the solution; but the wrong leaders are in control. I would say that the DA would do well to re-think its’ support for Helen Zille because half of what she is doing is unconstitutional in any case, as is the whole idea that Tony Leon also has of politics. And then there is the claim by Pumzile van Damme about why she resigned, that the party is controlled by a clique. The DA will have to change all that before they can be seen as a serious contender as an alternative to the ANC. And with the reputation that it has as being a so-called white party, it does not have a choice; it is going to have to commit itself to leaders that are not English, and probably not part of the “white” group. To drive Mmusi Maimane out was a mistake; the decline in the fortunes of the DA was not his fault but the actions of some of the leaders with an obsession of being a “white hope” (actions such as the series of “own goals” that they scored in the Cape Town metro in order to get rid of Patricia de Lille just before the 2019 election).
It is unfortunate that a good person like Mpho Phalatse has such naivety not to see that the game is over and she must look forward to be in opposition or leave the crumbling DA. Her theatrics and political gymnastics of her dumb leader will not take her anywhere. The numbers are against the DA and to continuously use the anti -corruption ticket does not wash as DA corruption in Cape Town, Tshwane and Western Cape is being exposed daily. The strategy of bringing false charges against strong black leaders in the Western Cape like Masizole Mnqasela who is standing his ground against the unqualified Premier and the Hawks have no case and he has not been charged. The clowns now want to bring party charges and people like Mncwango have seen through this blatant racism of the DA. The denial of colonialism and the notion that colonialism has a civilising effect has been dealt with by Aime Cesaire in his book: Discourse on Colonialism, that I recommend the Madam reads. The DA is becoming the National Party once more again. Mpho has to review her stay in that party as she is too decent to be part of their thuggery.
Thank you for putting ‘reaching out’ in quotations marks. It’s meaning in USian is very different to its meaning in English.
So it is as I thought – it was Helen Zille who interfered in a coalition process who can only be constitutional if it is done between the councillors of the city themselves. It has to be taken note, that the Constitutional Court had already made the point numerous times that each councillor has the obligation to vote according to what he/she believes is what the voters want ABOVE WHAT HIS/HER PARTY WANTS. In that light, such coalitions can only be constitutional if it is left to the councillors in the city themselves. The national leaders of the political parties are the problem, not the solution. And I can’t help to get the impression that it is because the nationalist centralism of the ANC has rubbed off onto them over the last 28 years. What should happen is that the councillors of the city of Johannesburg should be left to sort this thing out themselves.