Pretoria – Mpho Phalatse will live to be Johannesburg mayor for another day after a motion of no confidence against her was withdrawn Thursday.
The withdrawal is an indication that the ANC and the EFF have failed to reach an agreement during the two-day council meeting.
The parties are in dispute after the ANC promised the EFF to vote for an EFF candidate as Ekurhuleni mayor and also give the red berets three MMC seats.
In return, the EFF promised to vote for an ANC candidate as Joburg mayor.
However, the deal collapsed when some ANC members felt it was a careless move to give the EFF so much power.
This is a third attempt to remove Phalatse through a motion of no confidence.
After her first removal, she was reinstated within a month following a ruling by the Johannesburg High Court, which found 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The ANC tried to remove her again shortly after she was reinstated, but the motion was withdrawn by council Speaker Colleen Makhubele on the basis that the motion was inadmissible.
Speaking to the media after the council meeting, Phalatse said she wasn’t surprised that the motion was withdrawn because if the parties failed to agree while they were at Ekurhuleni, it was expected that they also wouldn’t agree in Johannesburg.
Phalatse added that she was concerned with the frequency of the motions. She said in Parliament and Ekurhuleni, you had to wait six months to bring another motion of no confidence if the first one was defeated.
“The City of Johannesburg has no limits to the number of motion of no confidence that can be brought and that is problematic. It does not speak well for stability. It’s something that needs to be looked at urgently.”
On Wednesday, Patriotic Alliance leader, Gayton McKenzie, posted on his Facebook page that the motion against Phalatse would happen in January.
He said the ANC would have to rectify and fulfil the promise it made to the EFF in Ekurhuleni.
IOL