DA will soon lose Ekurhuleni metro, warns ActionSA
ActionSA has warned the DA that is could soon lose power in Ekurhuleni as the EFF and ANC have an agreement in place to unseat Mayor Tania Campbell.
The warning comes just a few days after Mpho Phalatse was removed as the mayor of Johannesburg.
She was unseated through a motion of no confidence at an extraordinary council sitting which took place on Friday morning.
Phalatse has been replaced by the ANC’s Dada Morero.
ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont and Gauteng leader Bongani Baloyi briefed the media on Monday on the political thunderstorms in Johannesburg.
Baloyi told the media that Phalatse attempted to convince the DA’s national leadership to accede to a request for the position of speaker to be given to the IFP.
They however refused.
This led to the ANC’s coalition partners, with the help of the Patriotic Alliance, installing Cope’s Colleen Makhubele as speaker.
Makhubele subsequently scheduled a motion of no confidence in Phalatse, which led to her losing the mayor chain.
The DA has indicated that it will turn to the courts to have Phalatse’s removal declared illegal, but Baloyi says there is clearly no longer a coalition in Johannesburg.
"It is important for us to indicate at the moment that there is no longer a coalition in the City of Johannesburg. All parties, ourselves included, and the DA are now individual parties. We have noted the process that the DA has started, in so far as the litigation, and them challenging it, they have not directly engaged with us but we have noted it.
“We have accepted our new reality, that we are opposition and we are going to be formidable opposition. We are going to ensure that the budget that has been approved is effected, we are going to hold the executive to account.”
Baloyi said ActionSA is in discussion with the DA around the situation in Ekurhuleni.
"Ekurhuleni is imminent, it is a minority government in Ekurhuleni, we understand that the EFF and ANC have an agreement in place, and in foreseeable future, Ekurhuleni will go.
“We did warn this early this year that Ekurhuleni is in a precarious situation. Our warnings were not headed because we felt it is important to start speaking to other parties, to strengthen Ekurhuleni and make sure that we govern for a longer period of time.
“We still have a coalition agreement with the DA in Tshwane and Ekurhuleni, but it is a known fact that the City of Ekurhuleni is a minority government. The ANC and EFF put together is enough to change government there and we believe it is the next municipality they are going to. We have left it to the DA to advise us on a strategy of retaining Ekurhuleni, but as reality stands, our numbers put together mean nothing the two parties (ANC and EFF) can take Ekurhuleni," warned Baloyi.
ALSO READ
