Pretoria – Ousted Joburg mayor, Dr Mpho Phalatse says she hopes to bounce back today as executive mayor of the populous city when Council sits to elect her replacement.
On Thursday, the DA mayor was voted out of office to make way for a new mayor from a coalition led by the ANC and minority parties.
Her fate was sealed on Thursday after she was voted out with 140 votes, while 129 others voted to keep her as executive mayor.
Speaking to broadcaster eNCA, Phalatse said it’s not over.
“Well, you have to keep up the faith. You never give up until the end, and it is good that I kept the faith until the very end. It was my wish to continue, it was my wish to see the term through. This has happened, and we will elect a new mayor (on Friday),” Phalatse said.
“We will table a candidate. I will put my hand up yet again and we will see how that goes. That is democracy. The only thing I am grateful for, today, is that everything was done legally, it was above board and it looks like we have followed the rules of Council and laws of this country to the tee.”
On Wednesday, ActionSA, one of the key coalition partners of the DA in Joburg, released a statement lambasting the DA for throwing Phalatse under the bus. The party accused the DA of allowing Phalatse’s political career to end and keeping an arrogant attitude towards coalition partners and the future of the City of Joburg.
On Thursday morning, Phalatse said she hoped she would survive the motions, but that if she did not, she hoped that the city’s incoming government would be able to carry out the plans that the multiparty government hoped to implement.
“At a political level, yes, there is instability, but the idea is that in the midst of all of that, sense must prevail, and certainly plans that are crucial to keeping Joburg’s heart beating must not be affected negatively by political instability,” she was quoted in The Star.
The contest for the mayorship position was so fierce that Phalatse confirmed that she had received a suitcase on Wednesday afternoon from the Speaker of Council, Colleen Makhubele, with a note telling her to pack up.
“It was strange, really strange, and that’s all I am going to say on that,” she said.
IOL