Johannesburg executive mayor Mpho Phalatse may face a third attempt to remove her from office with another possible motion of no confidence at the council meeting on Thursday.
In November 2022, after the second attempt to remove her had failed, several parties confirmed that they would pursue another motion of no confidence against the DA mayor “before the end of January”.
As the situation stands, the ANC and other minority parties stand a great chance of voting Phalatse out of office after a breakdown in talks between the DA-led multiparty coalition and the Patriotic Alliance (PA).
Last week, it was revealed that the PA had been silently negotiating with the multiparty coalition, with talks led by ActionSA leaders Herman Mashaba and Funzi Ngobeni.
The talks were supposed to result in the PA joining the multiparty coalition and the protection of Phalatse from being booted out through a motion of no confidence.
But it appears that the DA’s top leadership scuppered the negotiations, describing the demands made by the PA as ridiculous.
In preparation of her removal, Phalatse’s spokesperson, Mabine Seabe, told The Star that political staff will receive a three-month payout once the current administration leaves office. He said this was a legal process that was done under the ambit of labour law.
Phalatse was briefly removed from office in September 2022, and replaced by the ANC’s Dada Morero.
After her first removal, she was reinstated within a month following a ruling by the Johannesburg High Court, which found that her removal was unlawful.
The ANC tried to remove her again shortly after she was reinstated, but the motion was withdrawn by council speaker Colleen Makhubele on the basis that the motion was inadmissible.
IOL