The ANC led coalition government of the City of Joburg has cemented its hold on the municipality with the election of Action SA’s Nobuhle Mthethwa defeated the Democratic Alliance’s Nonhlanhla Sefumba with 180 to 68 votes.
The election of a new speaker in the City of Joburg is part of a realignment sought by the ANC in line with a principle that the party with the most votes should take the lead.
Kabelo Kwamanda of Al-Jamah and Margret Arnolds of African Independent Congress had to resign as Mayor and Council Speaker respectively as part of the rearrangement of the coalition which also includes the EFF, Patriotic Alliance and most recently Action SA as well as the IFP.
This leaves only the DA and Freedom Front Plus in opposition.
It is in line with the same principle that the ANC may soon regain control of the City of Tshwane, a move that Action SA has already hinted at supporting citing an “abusive relationship” with the DA with whom they’re currently running the capital.
“You saw when they fielded their own mayoral candidate when they only have 71 councillors and you need a two thirds majority and also fielding a speaker candidate today that the DA is numb to the current reality ( that it doesn’t have a majority). By doing the DA wasted three hours of council and the people’s time,” said Mashaba on the sidelines of the council meeting on Wednesday.
He also accused the DA of refusing to service black communities. “By now you all know that I was born and raised in Hamanskraal. You can go now and see how bad those communities are because it has been difficult to convince the DA to render services there so if you think you’re going to abuse us and we are just going to take it, well not with us,” he said about the current coalition in the City of Tshwane.