Pretoria - In a dramatic turn of events, Tshwane Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa was removed from office during the chaos-riddled special council sitting at Tshwane House Council Chamber.
This was after the motion of no confidence was successfully passed against Mokgalapa after it was tabled by the ANC during an ordinary council sitting, which collapsed last week.
The motion could not be carried out because council had 90 councillors, who didn't form a quorum after the EFF and ANC councillors walked out.
Mokgalapa was voted out with 111 votes cast by the EFF and ANC councilors, while the DA councillors abstained from the proceeding.
His removal came in the wake of the widely-reported sex scandal implicating him and the former MMC for Roads and Transport Sheila Senkubuge.
A recording, which has been dubbed the 'sex tape', surfaced recently with content that suggested that Mokgalapa had sexual intercourse with Senkubuge inside a municipal office.
Also on the firing line was Council Speaker Katlego Mathebe, who was also voted out by 110 votes amid protest from the DA that the meeting was illegally convened.
Parties cited failures of service delivery for ousting Mokgalapa and Mathebe.
But, the DA vowed to fight their removal in court, saying it deemed the resolutions to be unlawful.
Party provincial leader John Moody said: "We will contest all these illegal elections that are taking place here and we have no doubt that we will be successful in whatever that is taking place here."
He said the DA had already consulted with its advocates to file an urgent court application against last night's council proceedings.
"From where we stand this is democracy being defeated. This is nothing else but a coup d'état. My fear is that we are very fast becoming a banana republic," he said.
EFF regional treasurer Obakeng Ramabodu, who presided over the sitting, was elected by the majority of councillors as the acting Speaker after the acting Speaker Zweli Khumalo was alleged to be intoxicated.
Senior official from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Willie Bila was later on ushered inside the chamber to preside over the election of the acting Speaker.
He said he was empowered through Section 36 of the Municipal System Act to preside over the election of acting Speaker in the absence of the Speaker.