The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) supported a motion of no confidence in the ANC Mayor, Dada Morero, during a Johannesburg Metro Council meeting.
One of the reasons the Freedom Front Plus backed the motion is that the Mayor and the Mayoral Committee Member for Finance, Margaret Arnolds, failed to consider the party’s proposal for the Metro’s draft budget for the 2025/26 financial year.
Two weeks before the approval of the 2025/26 budget, the Freedom Front Plus submitted an alternative budget to the Mayor and Mayoral Committee on Finance aiming to alleviate the financial burden on consumers.
One suggestion was that the city ought to start collecting its outstanding debt, amounting to R64 billion, to ensure that tariff increases are kept well below the inflation rate.
The proposal further suggested that no property tax increases should be implemented for the financial year. The party views property tax as a “Robin Hood” tax in any case.
Besides, infrastructure is decaying and the ANC is doing very little to address it.
The Freedom Front Plus believes that, considering the upcoming municipal election where no political party is likely to secure more than 50% of the votes, it is crucial to lay the groundwork for a potential multi-party coalition to exclude the ANC, MK and a possible EFF coalition.
The party further believes that the DA made a serious mistake by supporting the ANC’s motion of no confidence in the ActionSA Speaker, Nobuhle Mthembu. In the Freedom Front Plus’s view, she performed her duties reasonably well and the reasons for her removal were not convincing.
However, the ActionSA Speaker was stripped of her office by 212 votes, representing the DA/ANC bloc, with only 48 members voting against the motion.
This was the first time a motion of this nature attracted so much support in all the time the Freedom Front Plus has been part of the Johannesburg Metro Council.
Unfortunately, this is not the right way to treat potential coalition partners, especially with a view toward a future multi-party coalition to oust the ANC and its allies from power.
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