Mayor Phalatse to face yet another no-confidence motion

Barely two months after she was reinstated following a court ruling that nullified her removal in September, and her subsequent replacement with ANC councillor Dada Morero, Phalatse will seek to hold on to the mayoral chain amid allegations the coalition government she leads has mismanaged the city’s finances.

While her future hangs in the balance, the mayor has jokingly described as “interesting” the potential outcome of the motion against her, with the support of the EFF not guaranteed on both sides.

“It is a numbers game; we’ve got the multi-party government, our partners, we’ve got six political parties - the DA, ACDP, Action SA, IFP, UIM, the FF+, we are all together and going in as one block and we are hopeful that we will get support from the other side. We know that the ANC are working together, we don’t know how the EFF will vote so it’s going to be interesting how things unfold today,” she said.

Phalatse ascended to the mayoral seat in November 2021, after receiving the support of the EFF following the local government elections.

The mayor dismissed claims that the refusel of DA federal chair Helen Zille to work with the EFF poses a threat to her position.

“Helen Zille has been a great support to me and my mayorship. You would recall that Helen was a mayor in the City of Cape Town in a coalition of seven political parties. I have a multi-party government of nine political parties to run, who else to walk close to than Helen Zille? Was it Helen that we may not have formal working relations with the EFF? No it was DA FedEx decision.”

Asked if she is confident she will survive this latest attempt to oust her - Phalatse said her focus remains ensuring the delivery of services to city’s residents.

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