COPE councillor Colleen Makhubela elected speaker of City of Joburg

COPE councillor in the Johannesburg metro Colleen Makhubele was on Wednesday voted in as the council’s new speaker, beating the DA’s Alex Christians.

Sources in the metro told Business Day the opposition parties’ next move is to remove mayor Mpho Phalatse and install the ANC’s Dada Morero in her place.

Makhubele’s election follows the ousting of DA speaker Vasco da Gama earlier this month and signalled the end could be near for the DA-led coalition in the metro.

A coalition that includes the ANC and EFF as major parties is on a mission to take over the metropolitan municipality. It also includes minority parties such as COPE‚ UDM‚ AIC and the Patriotic Alliance (PA).

The election of Makhubele was made possible by the defection of the PA‚ which jumped from the DA-led coalition, citing the refusal of the DA to give the speaker position to one of their coalition partners‚ preferably the IFP.

The DA fielded its own candidate‚ Christians‚ going against the advice of its coalition partners.

The PA‚ Business Day understands‚ has agreed to the ANC’s offer of two MMC positions for its support to install both Makhubele and Morero.

ActionSA Gauteng leader Bongani Baloyi earlier on Wednesday sought to clarify that its advice for the DA to forgo the speaker position 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 underrepresented in its leadership structures‚” Baloyi said.

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