Africa-Press – South-Africa. The DA’s coalition partners in the City of Johannesburg do not believe the new speaker of the council should be a DA member.
Most political parties partnered with the DA in its coalition have said they believed a balance of power was required to keep the coalition stable.
The DA has a coalition partnership with ActionSA, Cope, the IFP, FF Plus, ACDP and Patriotic Alliance.
They run Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni.
The removal of Vasco Da Gama as council speaker has resulted in a power shift within the coalition.
He was removed with the help of six councillors who form part of the DA-coalition, a factor that shook the coalition and its stability.
The coalition needs to find a replacement for Da Gama before a special sitting takes place.
The DA indicated it had confidence in him, but some partners believe he did not do a good job and should not be nominated again.
As part of the coalition agreement, the DA has the prerogative to choose a candidate for speaker.
But ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said this had to change because the DA had too much power in the coalition, especially in Johannesburg.
Mashaba added that the coalition partners believed there should be a balance of power to save the coalition from outward attacks.
“The DA has the administrative power and the legislative arm, and we believe this is not fair,” he told News24.
The DA could not be treated like a party with a “two-thirds majority”, the ActionSA leader said.
“The new speaker will come from the coalition partners, not the DA. We, as ActionSA, have expressed that we do not want the speaker position, so we need a candidate from the smaller parties whether it’s the ACDP, FF Plus or Cope.
He said:
Mashaba said the DA had been informed of the decision for the speaker to be from a different political party.
This request will be unusual because the coalition has a similar arrangement in Tshwane, where a Cope councillor, Murunwa Makwarela, was elected as speaker.
A scheduled sitting of the Johannesburg council is set to be held at the end of September.
Meanwhile, there is a tussle about who is in charge.
The chair of chairs, Colleen Makhubele, said she had acting speaker powers and had allegedly called a special sitting of the council for Tuesday.
Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse said this was illegal, and the City planned to prevent any scheduled sitting.
Makhubele is a Cope councillor and decided to side with the other minority bloc in the council instead of her party.
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