No-show sinks no-confidence motion against Joburg mayor

City of Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero. Picture: Neil McCartney City of Johannesburg (COJ) mayor Dada Morero has survived another motion of no confidence after the motion was withdrawn due to the proposer not being in the council chamber on Thursday. Al Jama-ah and its minority party partners had tabled a motion of no confidence against Morero.

However, when the speaker of the COJ council, Margaret Sheron Arnolds, called for the proposer, councillor Lubabalo Cecil Magwentshu from the African Transformation Movement (ATM) said he had been summoned by his leadership and was not in the council chamber. “So, the proposer is not here. I don’t see the second proposer, so the motion falls off.

There is no such motion,” Arnolds said to claps in the background. The motion was delayed for a few weeks to allow the speaker of the council to consult with lawyers after there was a request for the vote to be taken through a secret ballot. The withdrawal of the motion comes a few hours after MMC for Finance Loyiso Masuku waselected the deputy mayor of Johannesburg.

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Masuku’s election means that the City of Johannesburg’s mayor and deputy mayor are both from the ANC. The Citizenunderstands that the deputy mayor position was formed to appease a faction of the ANC that wanted Morero removed as mayor. This comes after he lost his position as the regional chairperson of the ANC in Johannesburg at a conference last year.

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