S African mayor caught in leaked audio recording to quit

The mayor of the South African capital Pretoria said Sunday he was resigning, after a row over an audio recording in which he disparages fellow party members in conversation with a female colleague.

Stevens Mokgalapa, the Democratic Alliance mayor of the City of Twshane, which covers Pretoria, was put on leave by his party in December after the audio-tape was leaked online.

Media reports have suggested that Mokgalapa, who is married, was having an affair with the local politician who also features on the recording. It contains passages that have led some commentators to label it a "sex tape".

In his statement Mokgalapa announced would resign at the next council meeting at the end of February, while stressing that he had broken no laws.

His continued "presence in office is a football that others with political malice cannot resist kicking around", he wrote.

The Democratic Alliance said it would start the process of finding his replacement.

The departure of Mokgalapa is the latest in a series of setbacks that have hit the Democratic Alliance, the country's main opposition party.

It won a string of major cities in the 2016 municipal elections, including Pretoria, Johannesburg and Port Elizabeth.

But it lost ground in the May 2019 legislative elections, winning just 20.6 percent of the vote.

Is position was weakened by the decision last July of the radical left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to pull out of local government coalitions it had with the party.

The collapse of that informal arrangement loosened their hold on several key councils.

Then in October the mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, announced his resignation and his departure from the DA, denouncing the party's approach to racial equality.

The mayor's post went to a member of the ruling ANC.

Also in October Mmusi Maimane, the DA's first black leader, stepped down and quit the party.

He denounced what he said were coordinated attacks from sections of this traditionally white liberal party against affirmative action policies for the black majority population.