THE DA suffered yet another blow when its speaker in the City of Johannesburg, Vasco da Gama, was ousted through a motion of no confidence in the early hours of Thursday morning.
The meeting started on Wednesday at 10am but carried on into the early hours of Thursday and ended by Da Gama vacating his seat after failing to secure enough votes to retain his position.
The motion tabled by the PAC and seconded by the African Independent Congress received 136 votes for it, and 132 councillors voted against the motion.
The City of Johannesburg has 270 seats, meaning two councillors either abstained or had spoilt ballots.
Having refused to recuse himself from the debate, Da Gama had to read out the results himself. After making the announcement, councillors sitting in the opposition benches immediately got up shouting and screaming for joy.
Because the meeting had not concluded its business with one more item needing debate, Congress of the People councillor and chair of chairs Colleen Makhubele chaired the meeting after Da Gama vacated his seat.
In a shocking turn of events during the meeting the ACDP, a coalition partner of the multi-party government, used its three seats in council to support the motion.
Johannesburg is governed by a multi-party coalition which consists of the the DA (71), ActionSA (44), Patriotic Alliance (8), FF+ (4), ACDP (3), IFP (7) and together with Cope, UIM and ATM with a combined total of three votes, brings the entire number of seats the coalition occupies to 140.
While Da Gama was the only casualty of Wednesday’s meeting this means that mayor Mpho Phalatse could find herself facing a motion of no confidence of her own soon.
For the DA to hold on to the position, it is critical to regain the support of the ACDP to secure Phalatse’s mayorship and the rest of the mayoral committee.
Meanwhile, in the Western Cape, just hours before Da Gama’s removal, the DA-led coalition was booted out of power in the Knysna municipality.
The ANC together with Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners (PBI), the EFF and Patriotic Alliance removed mayor Laveal Davis, his deputy Mark Willemse, speaker Julie Lopes and council chief whip Hilton Stroebel through motions of no confidence.
Image (No confidence in you, as DA’s Speaker Vasco Da Gama voted out).
