Emerging from a challenging period of her political career — having been ousted as Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg for the second time last month — Mpho Phalatse says she has grown stronger and more resilient from the experience.
South African medical doctor and politician Phalatse is the guest on the Indaba Show this week with host Steven Taylor.
Originally from Hebron in Pretoria, she was born to two parents who were both educators who instilled hard work and excellence in her from a young age.
Speaking about her time as the Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Phalatse said she would have preferred to have been mayor under different circumstances.
“It taught me that I’m a sucker for punishment. It was tough. I already inherited a very broken City and all we needed as the multiparty government was some stability to unravel the mess that we inherited,” she said.
Customer satisfaction in the City was not good and residents were complaining about service delivery. Phalatse said there was a fear of the Democratic Alliance (DA) being associated with the failures that were brought about by the politics of the day.
“I did learn a lot, I think I grew very strong and resilient. I learned a lot of emotional intelligence and relational skills with different political parties and a very complex coalition. I’m also very proud that we’ve achieved some things in spite of the challenges,” she said.
Phalatse recently launched a campaign for federal leader of the DA ahead of the party’s federal congress in April 2023.
“The reality is that all South Africans can see what’s bound to happen in the 2024 election, that we are bound to see the ANC for the first time, go below 50%. And that presents a very real opportunity for a strong opposition coalition to arise and govern and take the country forward post 2024,” she said.
