The DA also lost control of the Tshwane metro council when the ANC and the EFF succeeded in a chaotic and tumultuous special council meeting on Thursday evening on a motion of no confidence in Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa, and Rachel Mathebe, the speaker, by performing.
This comes just a day after the DA and its coalition partners lost control of the Johannesburg subway.
The DA says what happened is illegal and he will fight the case in court urgently.
Because what he said was illegal, members of the DA and his coalition partners did not vote. All members of the mayoral committee must now resign.
“We have already consulted with our advocates and will even go to court tonight if possible,” John Moodey, the Gauteng leader of the DA, said on Wednesday evening.
“I believe we will be successful.”
The EFF filed the motion against the speaker and the ANC against the mayor.
The drama began early in the afternoon when the EFF and the ANC refused to allow Mathebe to excuse herself shortly after she opened the meeting. Mathebe wanted to withdraw because she thought it was a conflict of interest if she stayed while a motion of no confidence was heard in her.
The ANC and the EFF also did not want to allow Zweli Khumalo, another DA councilor, to take over as acting speaker. Khosi Maepa, ANC leader in the Tshwane council, even claimed Khumalo was under the influence and smelled of liquor.
Moodey later strongly denied it, accusing the ANC of making a mockery of democracy. When Khumalo walked to the speaker’s chair to take over from Mathebe, members of the EFF and the ANC stopped him.
Later, a deputy director-general of the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, on behalf of the Gauteng government, took over the speakership. When the officer walked to the speaker’s chair, DA members tried to stop him.
This eventually led to a physical quarrel between members of the various parties. After the meeting resumed, the EFF’s Obakeng Ramabodu was elected an acting speaker. “It’s illegal, it’s illegal!”
“You’re not the speaker!”
“Who are you? Who are you? ”Echoed across the boardroom throughout DA ranks.
Then the EFF councilors stopped and it was the DA’s turn to make the noise.
At one point, they clapped their hands on the benches in front of them. Later also with empty plastic bottles.
The DA says the appointment of Ramabodi to acting speaker was illegal. The party says Mathebe acted correctly.
“We want South Africans to know what happened here tonight is a mockery of our democracy.
“Democracy has been hit here tonight.
“My fear is that we are fast becoming a banana republic,” said Moodey.
“What happened tonight in the boardroom was nothing more than a house meeting.
“That’s the administrative capital, really? And then such illegalities happen here. ”
The ANC and the EFF maintained that their actions were legitimate.
