Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda.
Fani Mahuntsi / gallo images
Under fire Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda’s decision to stay put is causing a lot of uncertainty for residents.
Amid growing calls last week that he should go, and his statement that he would leave if asked to by the coalition partners who run the City of Johannesburg metro council, Gwamanda did not resign as expected.
Residents, civic society organisations and some political parties want him gone, blaming him for the high electricity tariff, unreliable water supply, unfinished projects, poor service delivery, the crumbling infrastructure and mismanagement.
Last week during a council meeting Gwamanda said:
Contrary to the call for my head under the auspices of ‘I am an executive doing nothing’, I remain committed to the residents.
Gwamanda was expected to tender his resignation after talks between the ANC and ActionSA of new a leadership in the Johannesburg metro. However, that did not happen.
ANC sources had revealed during the week that Gwamanda would resign early this month. This after revelations that the ANC had approached ActionSA to join its coalition government.
ActionSA made it clear that as one of its conditions to back the ANC, it wanted Gwamanda removed as mayor.
It also wanted to be allocated the speaker positions in Johannesburg and Tshwane and demanded that the R200 surcharge for prepaid electricity consumers should be cancelled.
Dada Morero, the ANC chairperson in Johannesburg, had been touted as Gwamanda’s replacement. Morero confirmed to City Press that he was the recommended ANC choice to replace Gwamanda.
READ: Joburg mayor Gwamanda ready to resign if coalition demands
“If elected, we are planning to continue the work that we said we will do. We will unveil all the plans once we are elected. For now, we are still analysing everything regarding what is critical and what are our priorities.”
Regarding Gwamanda’s resignation, Morero said the process should be concluded by next week when a special council meeting was scheduled.
In the metro council, the ANC has the most seats with 91, followed by the DA with 71. ActionSA has 44 and the EFF 29.
Smaller parties such as the Patriotic Alliance (PA) have nine seats, the IFP seven, the Freedom Front Plus four, the African Christian Democratic Party three and Al Jama-ah three.
The 13-party coalition that controls the metro is made up of the ANC, the EFF, the PA, Al Jama-ah and other minority parties.
READ: ANC eyes new alliance with ActionSA to strengthen coalitions in Gauteng’s three metros
It is now set to include ActionSA and the IFP which recently agreed to join the government of local unity.
ActionSA provincial chairperson Funzi Ngobeni told City Press this week that the discussions to finalise Gwamanda’s resignation were ongoing.
“We were supposed to have a meeting on Thursday with the ANC. Unfortunately, we were all stuck at the legislature until very late where we were reviewing the passing of the budgets.
“We are trying to align the diaries now for that meeting to happen. In that meeting, we will get an update from the ANC on how that process will go [ahead] because they are busy with that in terms of their engagements with Al Jama-ah and other parties they are in a coalition with.”
He said: “They will then update us.”
Ngobeni said it was clear that ActionSA wanted to see stability in the two metros – Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.
“This is what we’ve been saying from the beginning – that the installation of puppet mayors in these very important municipalities is unsustainable. It is not going to help the cities and the residents,” Ngobeni said.
The ANC has also realised that it’s not helping them because the results of the elections also speak to that as well. We do not mind who they are bringing as mayor if the individual is credible and able to lead complex municipalities such as Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. We have always said to the ANC that they should give the residents the best [people] among them and we will support them. And that is what we want to see happening.
Ngobeni claimed that Johannesburg was unstable and nothing was working out. He cited issues such as incomplete projects, issues of maladministration and the challenge of revenue collection in the city.
EFF Gauteng chairperson Nkululeko Dunga said although there were financial constraints, serious challenges and dynamics which came with running the city, the red berets believed Gwamanda had done his best and there was no need to remove him.
Dunga said if the EFF felt the need to remove the mayor, then the party would have been the first to advocate his removal.
Dunga told City Press:
We firmly believe that the current mayor, given the necessary support like he has been getting and the political soft-landing, did pretty well under the circumstances.
“There’s no financial mismanagement that could be identified. There is no maladministration that is so deep in the city where he must take direct ownership and responsibility to what has occurred.
“Given the understanding of obviously the challenges that arise, we think he has done pretty much what he could and to the best of his ability.”
Lunga Simelane
www.news24.com
