Cape Town politics shift: ANC's Banele Majingo joins DA, foiling no confidence motion

27 Mar 2025

ANC Cape Town caucus leader Banele Majingo has joined the DA. The announcement came in a chaotic council meeting on Thursday minutes before he was due to table a motion of no confidence in the DA’s Speaker, Felicity Purchase.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has described African National Congress (ANC) City of Cape Town caucus leader Banele Majingo’s decision to defect to the party as “historic”.

Majingo was not present on Thursday, 27 March 2025, during a council meeting where he was due to table a motion of no confidence in Speaker Felicity Purchase (DA), which prevented the motion from being heard.

Minutes later, it emerged via a statement by DA metro chairperson JP Smith that Majingo had resigned from the ANC to join the DA.

In the DA’s statement, Majingo said: “After careful consideration, I have come to realise that my personal values and principles are now more aligned with those of the Democratic Alliance.

“I am committed to their pursuit of clean governance and economic growth. I am increasingly impressed with their commitment to deliver for poor residents and the unemployed.”

The City of Cape Town’s budget was tabled in the council meeting.

Majingo joining the DA comes a day after the party’s metro region welcomed several religious leaders to the party, which included members of the ANC, African Christian Democratic Party and its offshoot, the African Restoration Alliance.

Smith said: “We welcome him warmly as a member of the Democratic Alliance.”

Before his resignation, he served on the City council’s finance oversight committee.

The motion

On Thursday, the council was due to hear a motion of no confidence in Purchase, submitted by Majingo on behalf of not only the ANC, but also other opposition parties in the 231-seat council.

The cause of this motion, as seen by Daily Maverick, dates back to Purchase shifting the January full council meeting from a physical one to a virtual one.

At the time, opposition parties claimed this was to shield councillors Smith and Xanthea Limberg from accountability following a much-publicised police raid at their council offices.

The police claimed this was in relation to investigations into the “construction mafia”, but Smith and Limberg claimed it was a “smear campaign” against them.

Read more: ‘No strong evidence’ in Xanthea Limberg, JP Smith saga, says Cape Town mayor

The motion of no confidence claimed Purchase had “persistently displayed a pattern of behaviour which is unbecoming of the Office of the Speaker”.

It also claimed her actions “consistently betray the lawful expectation that the Speaker will at all material times act without fear, favour or prejudice in conducting the affairs of the Council of the City of Cape Town.

“The Speaker is required to be impartial, however Councillor Purchase is always biased and protective towards her political party, the Democratic Alliance and its representatives.”

On Wednesday, Smith told Daily Maverick that the motion was “spurious… It’s vexatious, it’s nonsense.”

“Felicity (Purchase) will not lose that motion because there’s no substance to it,” he said, adding that the DA caucus was fully behind her. DM

This is a developing story and will be updated with comment from the ANC when it arrives.

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The motion