- The Joburg council will not hear a motion of no confidence in Mpho Phalatse on Thursday.
- This was decided at the council programming committee meeting on Tuesday morning.
- Phalatse said it was because no motion could take place when the matter was before court.
The executive mayor of Johannesburg, Mpho Phalatse, is safe from a motion of no confidence this week.
The council programming committee sat on Tuesday morning to table the agenda for Thursday's special sitting.
According to the ANC-led coalition, the purpose of the special sitting was to vote Phalatse out in a motion of no confidence.
As the ANC-led coalition holds 140 of the 270 votes, unless the DA managed to coerce parties to cross over, the coalition would have succeeded.
But the programming committee, led by Speaker Colleen Makhubele, removed the motion of no confidence from the agenda.
Those in the ANC-led coalition say it's a matter of time before they vote the mayor out.
Phalatse said the motion was illegally tabled as the Standing Rules of Order of Council, specifically Rule 92(1), states that a motion is not permissible if the matter is pending before a court of law.
"Therefore, the motion…was invalid, given that that motion contained a matter that is currently before the courts. If the motion had reached the floor of council, the house would have once again become the scene of a crime. Aside from this, the motion was without substance," she said in a statement.
"The multiparty government will not allow council to be run illegally or on the whims of individuals who seek to use the legislative arm of the city for wicked ends."
Reinstated
A week ago, the court found in favour of Phalatse, and she was reinstated as the executive mayor.
According to Phalatse, the opposition parties are intent on taking the leadership to get their hands on the R77.3 billion municipal budget, "especially in the space of supply chain management".
"In the time that the multiparty government has been in office, Joburg has started to gradually look and feel better, and this, of course, does not sit well with some ahead of the 2024 general election," she had said.
A cabinet meeting took place on Tuesday morning to "take stock of what was done and what was not done during the tenure of the illegal government of the ANC".
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The mayor claimed what was done in the three weeks the opposition was in power "was for self-interest, and the service delivery needs of residents were left unattended".
She said residents would be aware of these issues once they were consolidated.
"Armed with a court order, the Joburg multiparty has started the work of reversing decisions that were not in the interest of residents, and we are working day and night to get the city back on track and once again working for and with residents."
Makhubele's spokesperson, Lieketseng Tabi, confirmed the committee had removed the motion of no confidence in Phalatse.