Cape Town – The secretary of the Patriotic Alliance, Kenny Kunene, has faced criticism for conducting “illegal” raids on buildings in Johannesburg during his time as acting mayor last week.
Kunene was appointed acting mayor on Sunday and Monday last week when the City’s newly elected mayor Kabelo Gwamanda was away on government business for 48 hours.
According to IOL, Kunene announced on a cold and rainy Monday that he was spearheading efforts by the City to reclaim control of numerous hijacked buildings, which posed safety risks and unlawfully utilised utilities such as electricity.
Additionally, he highlighted the City of Johannesburg’s concern over criminals frequently using these hijacked buildings as hiding places.
“Once you hijack a building, you have committed a crime. The word ‘hijack’ means you have occupied that building illegally. When you are now being removed, you want to use the law to say there is a process of removing people.
“Those buildings have got traps, booby traps inside them. As you are walking, there are drains that you cannot even see. It’s so dark in those buildings.
We are here at Casa Mia Building in Berea with MMC of Human Settlements @AntheaLeitch1 MMC of Public Safety @MTshwaku it’s time for action. Salute pic.twitter.com/fUm5mPVfeC
— Kenny Kunene (@Kenny_T_Kunene) May 14, 2023
“When you look at the rats, the rats are so fat all over. These are the types of rats that, when a baby is lying on the bed, they will be eating on the torso of the baby. The situation is not just unsafe but very much unhealthy,” the report quoted Kunene as saying.
But the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) slammed him for launching “unlawful raids” on buildings in Windsor East and Hillbrow, News24 reported.
SERI spokesperson Edward Molopi said Kunene had raided the buildings without any authorising court order.
“SERI is appalled by the recent actions and approach of the City of Johannesburg under the leadership of [the] acting mayor which are targeted at poor people living in the inner city,” he said.
“At a time when the City is grappling with numerous challenges, it is disconcerting that the primary focus of the new acting mayor is to subject vulnerable communities to unconstitutional conduct that violate their fundamental rights to dignity and privacy,” the report quoted Molopi as saying.
Molopi said residents of Joburg had experienced similar things when Herman Mashaba was the mayor.
According to EWN, speaking to Kunene during the eviction programme, residents said that they had no choice but to occupy those dilapidated buildings.
However, despite the backlash from NGOs and human rights organisations, Kunene, who is also Johannesburg’s transport MMC defended his actions, saying that he had a mandate from his voters.
According to Times Live, Kunene said the reaction of some NGOs to his raids made him understand why the late Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe banned some civil society organisations in his country.
He took a jab at what he called “NGOs masquerading as political parties”.
“If they want to govern they must go and contest elections like we did. NGOs must not get involved in the work of government. It is none of their business.
“We have a crisis of buildings being hijacked in this country, our townships and suburbs are infested with illegal foreigners and drug dealers who are not South African.
“When we fulfil our mandate and act as the representative of our constituency who has been voted into government, they want to question us,” said Kunene.
He vowed he would not allow NGOs to “misuse” the democracy and laws of Siuth Africa.
“I understand why Robert Mugabe banned all NGOs in Zimbabwe, and only allowed NGOs led by Zimbabweans that seek to help Zimbabweans to exist,” the report quoted Kunene as saying.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
