Despite a high court ruling removing unlawfully-elected ANC mayor Dada Morero, the ANC still managed to score itself five new Johannesburg council chairperson positions on Thursday as it cemented its new-found strength in the city. (Photo by Papi Morake/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
Despite a high court ruling removing unlawfully-elected ANC mayor Dada Morero, the party still managed to score itself five new Johannesburg council chairperson positions on Thursday as it cemented its new-found strength in the city.
The Patriotic Alliance (PA) and the United Democratic Movement (UDM), both of which had been part of the coalition government led by reinstated Democratic Alliance (DA) mayor Mpho Phalatse, underscored their newly established allegiance with the ANC by each receiving chairperson positions.
The PA’s Themba Mhlongo was elected chair of the economic development council committee, while Thandiwe Nontenja, who occupies the UDM’s solitary council seat, was elected chair of the oversight committee on governance.
Moloko Mpolobosho, one of two councillors from the African Independent Congress, is the newly-elected housing committee chairperson. Mpolobosho’s party was not part of the DA-led coalition that came into being after local government elections in November last year.
The ANC now has chairperson positions in the corporate and shared service, ethics and disciplinary, finance, rules, and transport committees. The new chairs are Tefo Raphadu, Mongameli Mnyameni, Loyiso Masuku, Brenda Dammie and Makhosazana Ndlela, respectively.
The eight new chairs were elected after a reshuffle last week when minority political parties including the PA, UDM and the Congress of the People — which has its only councillor, Colleen Makhubele, as council speaker — ditched the DA-led coalition in Johannesburg.
No party won an outright majority in the city’s 270-seat council after last year’s elections, with the ANC having the majority seats (91), followed by the DA (71), Action SA (44), the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 29, and the PA with eight.
The EFF was not part of the DA’s coalition, but had voted to elect Phalatse as mayor and the DA’s Vasco Da Gama as speaker, after last year’s local government elections. The EFF, in supporting the DA candidates, cited what it called the ANC’s “corruption”.
But Thursday, the EFF, which had two of its councillors absent at the meeting, voted for the five new ANC chairs and the other three committee heads from smaller parties.
In total, the chairs received a majority of 138 votes, while the unsuccessful DA candidates received between 123 and 125 votes.
The committees exist in terms of Section 79 of the Municipal Structures Act, which allows for their establishment “for the effective and efficient performance of its [council] functions or the exercise of any of its powers”.
The rearrangement in party allegiances led to Phalatse’s removal as mayor on 30 September, which Judge Raylene Keightley ruled unlawful at the Johannesburg high court on Tuesday.
Keightley reinstated Phalatse and said all decisions taken by Morero after his 30 September election — including the 10-person mayoral committee he appointed on 8 October — were “unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid and are reviewed and set aside”.
Addressing the council on Thursday, before the election of chairpersons, Phalatse said she hoped for a more stable city that focused on service delivery.
“It’s good to be back. It’s good to see the city’s rightful administration back where they belong. I sincerely hope that we will see stability going forward and that our focus will be the six million residents that we’ve pledged to serve — service delivery,” she said.
“Let’s go out and do our best.”
But her future remains uncertain because the ANC looks set to revive its motion of no confidence in Phalatse as early as next week to lead a new coalition government.
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