Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse speaks before a protest march against the failing billing system in Johannesburg. Picture: Neil McCartney
New City of Johannesburg mayor and Democratic Alliance (DA) member Mpho Phalatse on Monday announced her mayoral committee members (MMCs).
Last month, the DA regained control of Johannesburg, with the help of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and ActionSA.
As a result, Phalatse was elected as the new executive mayor of the city, after she beat ANC mayoral candidate Mpho Moerane with 144 votes.
The ANC also lost the Ekurhuleni municipality after the DA’s Tania Campbell was elected executive mayor.
During a media briefing on Monday, Phalatse announced her mayoral committee – consisting of members from Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA party – in which she indicated that the DA achieved a majority coalition government rather than a minority.
“I’m happy to announce that today we have managed to come to a point where we now have a majority coalition government in Johannesburg and that we will be having 10 MMCs in office,” she said.
ALSO READ: Tania Campbell announces majority DA Ekurhuleni mayoral committee
Phalatse said the multi-party coalition would represent 136 seats (50% plus one) in the city’s council.
“It took long to get to this point [because] we tried to be as inclusive as we possibly could. This was an investment into the stability and growth of the city… we know what has happened in the past five years.
“We decided that we want to include as many parties as possible, and we got to 10 parties giving us a number of 136 [seats], which is a majority government as we know,” Phalatse explained.
She pointed out that the parties that did not get MMC positions would be accommodated within the 17 chairperson positions.
The coalition agreement would be made public soon.
The mayor further said she was aware of present challenges, but that she was confident the MMCs were more than capable to deal with the tasks ahead.
“While success will not be achieved overnight, we know that mayor Phalatse and her team are more than capable of turning things around and restoring the shine to the City of Gold.”
Meanwhile, the ANC Johannesburg region has since noted the announcement of the committee.
The party slammed Phalatse for appointing a committee that mainly consisted of men.
“It is [an] indictment that the first female executive mayor of the City of Johannesburg, in a period where gender equality has been elevated as a critical issue across the globe, chooses a 70% male mayoral committee. The executive mayor must as a matter of urgency review and refocus her agenda on gender,” the party said in statement on Monday.
The party further accused Phalatse of wrongdoing relating to the Field Band Foundation, which provided services to the metropolitan municipality for more than R11 million in 2017.
This isn’t the first time the ANC in Johannesburg has attacked Phalatse.
Last week, the regional secretary Dada Morero attacked the new mayor and the coalition government.
READ MORE: Not paying for electricity is theft, says new Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse