A stalemate has arisen in the City of Johannesburg council as the ANC caucus cannot agree on who to vote for as the next mayor. The party has requested a three-hour adjournment of the council sitting as its councillors are undecided on whether to vote for ANC Greater Johannesburg region chairperson Dada Morero, council speaker and Cope member Colleen Makhubela, or another Al Jama-Ah member, Kabelo Gwamanda.
The ANC’s initial agreement with its coalition partners was to support another Al Jama-Ah councillor following the resignation of Thapelo Amad as mayor last week. Amad resigned after the ANC’s initial arrangement with the Patriotic Alliance (PA) fell apart. The PA called for Amad’s removal, and ActionSA tabled a vote of no confidence in Amad, who resigned before he could be removed.
Given its agreement with the EFF, which has seen the two parties vote for a minority party councillor as the mayor wherever they are in partnership, the ANC has apparently agreed to vote for another Al Jamah-Ah councillor. However, Makhubela has apparently insisted that she has the right qualities for the mayoral post and that the ANC should back her if it wants her party’s support.
Speaking to the media on the sidelines of the vote, Makhubela said the ANC-led coalition had not decided whether it should support her or Gwamanda. “The ANC has not indicated who they will support, but I can confirm that I have the qualities to be mayor,” she said. “I have a heart of servanthood, experience in public and private [and] I have an MBA,” she added.The ANC’s decision has been complicated by the party’s national executive committee (NEC) framework on coalitions, which was adopted last week.
The framework states that the party that received the most votes should take charge of the coalition and have the mayoral seat. As such, councillors in the metro are understood to have told the party’s provincial leadership that in line with the framework, Morero has to be put forward as the ANC’s candidate.
However, it needs the support of Cope and Al Jamah-Ah to secure enough votes to retain its leadership. ActionSA and the DA are also not seeing eye to eye, with the DA wanting Mpho Phalatse as its candidate, but ActionSA and the PA preferring Funzi Ngobeni.
DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga told News24 that they would nominate Phalatse and were not fearful of returning to the opposition benches. “We had a working arrangement in the metro, and our coalition partners were singing Phalatse’s praises. What changed? We can’t just change our minds daily. Should our partners remain adamant on voting for their candidate, then the instability we are seeing now will continue,” Msimanga said.
Mboma Mboma