Johannesburg - The DA has accused its councillors and its coalition partners in the City of Johannesburg of betrayal after the party was dislodged from power on Wednesday after three years at the helm.
This comes as the ANC made a dramatic return on Wednesday where ANC regional chairperson Geoff Makhubo was elected the new mayor.
The removal of the DA-led coalition government was triggered by the resignation of former mayor Herman Mashaba last week, who also dumped the DA.
Of the 268 councillor who voted on Wednesday, Makhubo secured 137 votes, while the DA’s candidate Funzela Ngobeni and the EFF’s Musa Novela received 101 and 30 votes respectively.
The ANC and the DA have 122 and 103 councillors respectively while the EFF has 30 seats.
DA provincial chairperson Mike Moriarty said the party was disappointed and felt betrayed by its coalition partners and some of its councillors who supported the ANC.
The DA was governing the metro through its coalition with the IFP, FF Plus, ACDP, UDM, Cope and ACDP.
“If you think about it, just about every single coalition partner must have voted for the ANC. One of the disappointments is that you talk to the coalition partners and they say ‘don’t worry we are voting for you’ and then you get a result like this. You feel betrayed,” Moriarty said.
Moriarty said the DA, which could also lose Tshwane if its coalition partners continue to abandon the party, would hold consultations with the political parties.
He said the party would not embark on a witch hunt for its councillors who voted with the ANC on Wednesday, even though it was disappointed with them.
“The folks themselves must live with their choices if they have got any sense of ethics and morality,” he said.
He said the concerned councillors should leave the DA if they were no longer happy with it.
“It was an individual choice that was made here. it had nothing to do with ideology. It had nothing to do with the direction of the party and had nothing to do with recent elections. I don’t know what kind of deal the ANC did with those individuals but I think it is very sad,” he said.
The ANC was jubilant after the victory back into the country’s economic hub.
ANC Secretary General Ace Magashule said the party had to go back to communities of the city and apologies for the ANC’s wrongs which saw the party being removed from power in 2016.
“We must tell them our mistakes and apologise. We must also move with speed to implement radical socioeconomic transformation,” Magashule said.
EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu said the red berets would not support the ANC-led government even if it agreed with its policy, budget and service delivery initiatives, as it was opposed to Makhubo due to his corruption allegations.