A Democratic Alliance councillor faces expulsion from the party after the ANC reclaimed the Mogale City municipality in Wednesday night’s mayoral elections.
ANC Mogale City speaker Patrick Lipudi was elected mayor by 39 votes to 36, beating the DA’s Michael Holenstein, who has been mayor since the ANC was unseated in the local government elections last year.
As a result, the official opposition is investigating dissent in its own ranks.
Two of the ballots were spoilt, and another vote that was apparently meant to go to the DA from the coalition partners and its councillors went to Lipudi.
“I have no reason to want to believe that any of our voting partners is responsible,” DA Gauteng leader John Moodey said of the vote.
All except one DA councillor agreed to undergo lie-detector tests after Holenstein was deposed by a motion of no confidence two weeks ago. Brandon May did not take the test and chose to resign from the party.
Moodey said the DA would take the “necessary” action after the investigation.
“This is simply politics of the cheque book and these things have the tendency of coming out in the wash.
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