To paraphrase Professor Somadoda Fikeni the Democratic Alliance’s capitulation in the big metropolitan areas just after the election of the party’s new leadership should trigger immediate concerns in its controlling chambers.
The City of Tshwane Democratic Alliance (DA) mayor Stevens Mokgalapa has been removed through a motion of no-confidence Thursday night on Dec. 5, 2019.
Tlangi Mogale, ANC communications manager, confirmed this latest development on Newz Room Africa tonight. Tshwane council speaker Katlego Mathebe was dramatically voted out also prior today; a matter which DA said it was illegal. It is going to file court papers to seek justice, said it Gauteng leader John Moody.
Meanwhile in the City of Johannesburg, speaker Vasco da Gama survived a motion of no confidence on Thursday following the ANC’s win (which catapulted Geoff Makhobo to the office) over the contested mayorship vacated by DA’s Herman Mashaba last month.
Mokgalapa was serving suspension after allegations of misconduct in mayoral office emerged. Audio-recorded evidence of him was publicized and went viral on various media platforms of him in discussion with a fellow staffer about internal conflicts and the supposed way of dealing with alleged detractors.
The said staff member voluntarily resigned all her positions in council. On Nov. 26 the Business Day reported that:
“Mokgalapa’s future as Tshwane mayor has been in doubt since the leaking of an audio clip of him and a member of the mayoral committee, Sheila Senkubuge, discussing plans to fire government officials. The damning 30-minute sex audio also suggests that the pair had become intimate and engaged in sexual acts in the meeting.”
The ejection of Mokgalapa as Tshwane mayor follows yesterday’s outcome in the city of Johannesburg. There the DA lost the mayor’s office through it snatched away from the ANC in 2016. The ballots were cast secretly. Sadly, the citizens have no role to play in this rearrangement of the council deck chairs.
For the most part, the Democratic Alliance’s serial loses in municipalities are a result of broken coalition arrangements. More so of the “kingmakers” the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
Athol Trollip was removed in a similar fashion in Mandela Bay municipality after opposition parties coalesced to oust him in September 2018. His successor Mongameli Bobane, United Democratic Alliance member, suffered the same fate – a vote of no-confidence – today.
Prior to becoming the Democratic Party (DP) before it was renamed DA – a coalition of parties – in 1999, the Tshwane-born former mayor “worked for the City of Tshwane for a period of nine years as a Ward and PR Councillor,” the People’s Assembly reported.
Mokgalapa became mayor in the City of Tshwane after Solly Msimanga (another DA mayor) stepped down on Jan. 2019. Msimanga was DA candidate for Gauteng Province Premier in the May 2019 general elections. His party lost.
Update Dec. 6, 2019
Talk Radio 702 reported this morning that the City of Tshwane has been placed under administration by the Gauteng Provincial government. Lebogang Maile said on the radio station that the City has been plagued by a series of poor service delivery with Hammanskraal hardest hit by water challenges.