Mpho Phalatse ousted as Joburg mayor

The DA's Mpho Phalatse has been ousted as mayor of the City of Johannesburg.

Phalatse was removed through an ANC-sponsored motion of no confidence on Friday. This despite her filing an urgent court bid to interdict the special council sitting.

Her interdict was still being heard at the time of publishing.

The count showed 139 councillors voted in favour of the motion to remove Phalatse as mayor — just two days after the ANC, EFF, Patriotic Alliance and other smaller parties installed Cope’s Colleen Makhubele as speaker.

The council sitting is expected to vote for a new mayor on Friday.

The ANC is expected to nominate its caucus leader Dada Morero.

The ANC’s potential takeover of the municipality comes after the DA refused calls from ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance to give the speaker position to one of their coalition partners, preferably the IFP.

The PA, TimesLIVE understands, has agreed to the ANC’s offer of two MMC positions in exchange for its support to install Makhubele and Morero. The PA has eight councillors in the council.

TimesLIVE