Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse unfazed, vows to continue with ‘business as usual’

Despite the threat from the minority opposition coalition to oust her at the next council meeting, Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse is unfazed, vowing to continue with her business as usual.

She vowed to ensure service delivery to the city residents did not stop, including interviews to fill the vacant city manager post tomorrow.

Phalatse accused the minority opposition bloc of joining the ANC chorus in calling for a motion of no confidence in her and her entire executive.

“It is clear that there is a desperate and coordinated attempt to grab power of the city without any regard for residents and their service delivery needs,” she said.

Phalatse’s future hangs in the balance. The writing was on the wall for her after council speaker Vasco da Gama was removed through a motion of no confidence last week amid claims of interfering with tender processes in the municipality.

A new motion is looming against Phalatse, proposed by the one-member Al Jama-ah party. Some saw the move as part of a trend by the small party to play a strange role of kingmakers by cooperating with the ANC to turn the tables against the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Joburg and elsewhere.

Da Gama’s removal was initiated via a motion from the Pan Africanist Congress, which was supported by the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters.

No basis for Phalatse’s removal

In Joburg, the DA obtained power with the backing of the EFF, which wanted to punish the ANC for refusing to bow to its expensive coalition just after the local government elections last November.

With the conflict between the EFF and ANC now over, the flip-flopping red berets are back to the ANC against the DA.

Phalatse’s planned removal seems to have no basis other than political expediency by the opposition block led by the ANC.

She is liked by residents as she works closely with communities and attends to their problems. Phalatse is in the process of finding a solution to regular power cuts and multibillion-rand historic debt owed to Eskom by Soweto residents.

She is expected to visit Soweto again on Saturday to give feedback about her previous interactions with the residents over Eskom-related issues.

But at the weekend the opposition ANC, leader of the minority opposition parties in council, embarked on a social campaign to portray Phalatse as corrupt.

The ANC issued online posters claiming she failed to disclose her criminal case related to her alleged corruption in relation to the Field Brand Foundation conflict of interest.

Phalatse allegedly paid R45 million to three law firms to purge employees from her office and in the process, showed no respect for black lawyers.

The ANC alleged Phalatse issued special leaves or illegal suspensions of officials in the metro. She hit back and accused the minority opposition bloc of playing “political games”.

Despite that, Phalatse will not be distracted, nor will service delivery be affected by the action. The repair and rebuild of Joburg is a serious responsibility and action, which “we will not allow to be stalled by a sordid campaign to capture the city”.

But the mayor vowed to continue with service delivery and assured residents that her members of the mayoral committee were hard at work.

“City departments are operating at full steam; entities are effecting their mandated service delivery functions and council’s legislative responsibilities are continuing under the stewardship of the secretary of council,” Phalatse said.

Among the tasks to be done this week by the multiparty government will be to conduct interviews with candidates to fill the post of city manager.

“We are determined to ensure effective leadership of the city administration by appointing a permanent chief administrator,” Phalatse said.

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