Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero survived Wednesday's motion of no confidence. (X)
The ANC regional task team will meet on Sunday to decide who will fill the vacant Johannesburg council speaker position, after the removal of ActionSA’s Nobuhle Mthembu on Wednesday.
A source in the regional task team said the party may consider former speaker and MMC for finance Margaret Arnolds, of the African Independent Congress, for the position.
If Arnolds accepted the speaker position, this would return the crucial finance MMC portfolio to the ANC, a position it held before Dada Morero was elected mayor.
“This would mean that we take Margaret back to her position — it would basically be a swop because she was doing well in that role,” the source said.
It is understood that acting city manager Thsepo Mokola will convene a council sitting next Wednesday to elect a new speaker.
On Wednesday, Morero survived a motion of no confidence tabled by the Democratic Alliance (DA); Mthembu was removed following a motion from Al Jama‑ah.
Of the councillors present on Wednesday, 144 voted in favour of Morero, 75 against, and 43 abstained. For the speaker, 212 voted to remove Mthembu, and 48 opposed the motion.
For the first time in council, the ANC voted with the DA to remove Mthembu, a speaker they voted for during her election.
ANC council chief whip Sithembiso Zungu also survived a motion of no confidence.
Sources said before the vote that Morero and Zungu were expected to survive, given their numbers, while Mthembu’s removal was anticipated because the ANC had resolved in a meeting to vote for her removal.
The regional task team, in a Tuesday meeting, declared that ActionSA had “defined itself outside the government of local unity” that leads the Johannesburg metro.
Regional task team coordinator Sasabone Manganyi said ANC provincial coordinator Hope Papo and deputy Nomantu Nkomo‑Ralehoko met ActionSA chair Michael Beaumont and provincial secretary Evelyn Mondlana, who confirmed they would not support Morero.
“The ANC then decided to vote against the ActionSA speaker, citing their failure to work with and support the coalition government on critical council matters like the budget and appointments of acting senior officials,” Manganyi explained.
With the speaker position now open, minority parties are expected to make demands, but another ANC source said that door should be closed.
The ANC and Economic Freedom Fighters, which lead the coalition government, have previously allowed minority parties to occupy the mayoral and speaker positions.
So far, Al Jama‑ah members Thapelo Amad and Kabelo Gwamanda were granted the mayoral seat — but their tenures were considered disastrous. Colleen Makhubele, of the Congress of the People, briefly served as speaker before her dismissal, and Arnold also held the position.
The ANC source said smaller parties have had sufficient opportunities to prove themselves.
“It is time for the ANC to take over the position of speaker. We will deliberate on Sunday on who must become the next speaker.”
During an interview with eNCA after her removal, Mthembu described her ousting as political, and expressed disappointment that residents’ needs were sidelined during the process. She blamed both the ANC and the DA for her removal and sidelining service delivery, accusing the DA of sponsoring the motion to remove her to reinstate Gwamanda as mayor.
On Wednesday, the Mail & Guardian reported that the DA had allegedly promised Al Jama-ah that if it voted in favour of Wednesday’s motion of no confidence to remove Morero, its candidate, Gwamanda, would again take over the position as mayor.
Sources said Al Jama‑ah approached the DA, vowing to lobby other parties to vote in favour of the motion — if granted a mayoral position.
According to one source: “They then told ActionSA that they had clinched a deal with the DA, and they are lobbying other parties to vote out the mayor and vote against Morero in the motion. They met [ActionSA leader Herman] Mashaba, told him about the plan and discussed how positions would be shared.”
DA Johannesburg caucus leader Belinda Kayser‑Echeozonjoku denied any talks with Al Jama‑ah, saying the DA “has never met Al Jama‑ah and we do not discuss coalition agreements at a local level”.
Mthembu said political disagreements are inevitable, but said that residents must understand why the city currently has no speaker.
“There’s reports that are going to affect them, that affect service delivery that won’t be tabled because council cannot continue because the Democratic Alliance wants to play cheap politics in order to fill Helen Zille as a suitable [mayoral] candidate for 2026-27 at the expense of the residents of the City of Johannesburg,” she said.
“Legislature was working, legislature was functioning, legislature went to the people, communicated with the people, our ward committees were functional. Those committees were functional. The DA ward councillors did not even attend IDP [integrated development planning] sessions and residents were complaining about that. We ran successful IDP sessions, where were they?”