Mpho Phalatse has been elected as the new mayor of the City of Johannesburg, completing a great day in the office for the DA.
Phalatse received 144 votes while Moerane got the nod from 121 councilors. Phalatse is a qualified medical doctor.
Phalatse edged ANC’s Mpho Moerane for the coveted mayoral chain of Africa’s economic hub. Phalatse is also a Certified Independent Medical Examiner (CIME) with the American Board of Independent Medical Examiners (ABIME). She becomes the city’s first female mayor.
The win by the DA in the City of Gold completed a brace for the party after earlier causing an upset in the nation’s manufacturing hub of Ekurhuleni where Mzwandile Masina was ousted as the mayor by Tania Campbell.
The DA’s Vasco da Gama was elected speaker of the City of Johannesburg with 147 votes against the 118 votes that went to ANC candidate Eunice Mgcina earlier in the day. This is da Gama’s second stint as speaker.
In the City of Ekurhuleni, the DA’s Raymond Dhlamini was elected speaker 116 votes leaving the ANC candidate Dorothy Mlambo with only 104 votes.
The voting patterns in the two cities show that the EFF and Action SA pitched tenth with the DA.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said the DA had him and the EFF to thank for its win, which he promised will be repeated in Tshwane on Tuesday.
“There’s been discussions between us and the EFF to say let us support the DA and see what happens. What was important to us was to make sure that we do not have an ANC government in all three Gauteng metros,” said Mashaba.