Cope councillor Colleen Makhubela has been elected speaker of the City of Johannesburg.
Makhubele received 141 of the 270 votes while the DA’s Alex Christians received 129 votes.
Makhubele’s election comes after the ousting of DA speaker Vasco Da Gama earlier this month.
A coalition that includes the ANC and EFF as major parties has seemingly emerged and is on a mission to take over the metropolitan municipality. The coalition includes minority parties such as Cope, UDM, AIC and PA.
TimesLIVE understands their next move is to remove mayor Mpho Phalatse and install the ANC’s Dada Morero in her place.
The election of Makhubele was aided by the PA, which on Thursday jumped from the DA-led coalition.
This comes after the DA refused calls from ActionSA and the PA to give the speaker position to one of their coalition partners, preferably the IFP.
The PA, TimesLIVE understands, has agreed to the ANC’s offer of two MMC positions for its support to install both Makhubele and Morero.
The DA fielded its own candidate, Christians, going against the advise of its coalition partners.
ActionSA Gauteng leader Bongani Baloyi earlier on Wednesday, before the council sitting, sought to clarify that it’s advice for the DA to forego the speaker was not a power play.
“ActionSA made representations within the multiparty coalition that the vacant speaker position should be filled by the IFP rather than the DA.
“We did so without any possible benefit to ActionSA because we are concerned about the stability of the coalition. While the work of fixing Johannesburg will take many years, this will only happen if coalition governments are stable and have continuity.”
ActionSA has a long-standing view that no one party should hold all the power in a coalition.
The party believes the so-called minority parties are important in the coalition and should be given some form of power for their loyalty to the coalition.
“The truth is that parties like the IFP and PA command a significant number of seats in Johannesburg and have been heavily pursued by the ANC. Despite this, they have remained committed to the coalition, but remain heavily under-represented in its leadership structures,” Baloyi said.
TimesLIVE
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