ActionSA criticises DA for boycotting City of Joburg Speaker vote
ActionSA Gauteng chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni, said that their coalition partner, the DA, was comfortable occupying the opposition benches in Johannesburg, where they had little power of influencing governance decisions.
JOHANNESBURG - ActionSA has accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) of ducking it’s responsibility to Johannesburg citizens after it boycotted Monday’s Speaker vote.
ActionSA said that the DA refused to admit the Patriotic Alliance into their coalition, which would have allowed them to put up a candidate for the Speaker position.
Instead, African Independent Congress councillor, Margaret Arnolds, was elected to the position unopposed.
ActionSA Gauteng chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni, said that their coalition partner, the DA, was comfortable occupying the opposition benches in Johannesburg, where they had little power of influencing governance decisions.
"The nature of these discussions afforded the DA to determine whether they would like to lead the arrangement or whether they would prefer to support a candidate from one of these parties to win Johannesburg away from the ANC-EFF coalition."
However, DA Johannesburg caucus leader, Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku, said that her party was not willing to sacrifice it's values by working with the Patriotic Alliance.
"If you are only interested in being in government, having positions in government then you are misunderstanding your role of being an elected public representative."
Kayser-Echeozonjoku said that the DA would be going ahead with their motion to dissolve the Johannesburg council, despite having not secured the required two-thirds majority for it to pass.
