Johannesburg – The leadership of the City of Johannesburg – including Mayor Thapelo Amad, Speaker Colleen Makhubele and the council’s chair of chairs – is under fire from ActionSA.
Labelling Amad a “puppet mayor” and Makhubele as “dishonest”, ActionSA confirmed on Tuesday it was submitting a no-confidence motion against the leaders. It added that to improve service delivery in Johannesburg, “the ANC and their minions” had to be removed from power.
ActionSA’s City of Johannesburg caucus leader, Funzi Ngobeni, said Amad has “repeatedly proven to be woefully ill-equipped and unable to articulate a coherent plan of action and vision for the City”.
“Since Amad’s election, service delivery in Johannesburg has rapidly deteriorated with heaps of rubbish pilling our city’s streets, while ANC members of the mayoral committee (MMC) – such as Jack Sekwaila – wanting to blame homeless people for the city’s mess instead of taking responsibility themselves,” he said.
We have submitted Motions of No Confidence in the City of Joburg puppet-mayor Thapelo Amad, the dishonest Speaker Colleen Makhubele and the Council’s Chair of Chairs.
To restore good governance and service delivery in the City, we must remove the ANC & their minions from power. pic.twitter.com/yoZprUj83I
— ActionSA (@Action4SA) April 11, 2023
He also criticised the coalition attempts between the ANC and the EFF, saying that “residents and businesses are embarrassed by what the ANC and EFF have served up to lead the economic hub of our country”.
“We believe that to fix South Africa, we must remove the ANC and their proxies from power, and we will collaborate with all like-minded political parties to achieve that goal,” Ngobeni said.
He stated that the motions of no confidence would be served at the next council meeting on 25 April 2023, and added that “ActionSA will start with engaging with all other parties in the council to ensure that the ANC and EFF are removed from exerting any further control on Johannesburg and we are confident of our prospects of success”.
Today we will submit motions of no confidence against the Joburg puppet-mayor Thapelo Amad, dishonest Speaker Colleen Makhubele & other office bearers due to their poor leadership & backhanded dealings by the ANC’s Gauteng Provincial Chairperson & EFF.https://t.co/Cy4w5jXQEz
— ActionSA (@Action4SA) April 11, 2023
The development came after Amad revealed during an interview with SABC that he had attended a meeting last week in which he secured a prospect for a R9.5 billion loan to fund “service delivery issues” and a “smart city”.
The @CityofJoburgZA deserves better. pic.twitter.com/nlT4Uh9Nr4
— Herman Mashaba (@HermanMashaba) April 9, 2023
Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie described Amad’s interview as “embarrassing”.
“This is really embarrassing, what is the mayor saying? What loan? Where and when was this discussed? Which company is giving this loan? We cannot continue defending such stupidity, we must admit that we played a part in this mess, we must fix our mistake soonest.”
But according to The Citizen, Amad has since clarified his remarks about the R 9.5 billion loan.
“The mention of the R9.5 billion loan facility was made as a mere example of the proposals received and not stated as a final and concluded deal of the city. It was used within the context of the interview to demonstrate a collective will by the city leadership to steer Johannesburg and the inner city around towards growth and development,” the report quoted the City of Johannesburg as saying.
Follow African Insider on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Picture: Twitter/@ActionSA_JHB
For more African news, visit Africaninsider.com
Compiled by Junaid Benjamin
