Africa-Press – South-Africa. ActionSA is set to seek legal advice after the ANC and EFF failed to attend a scheduled council programming committee meeting on Tuesday morning to discuss a proposed motion of no confidence in Johannesburg Mayor Thapelo Amad of Al Jama-Ah.
In a statement, ActionSA’s Gauteng chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni, described the parties’ absence as an “undemocratic” attempt to maintain power in a collapsing city due to corruption.
“The move is another desperate attempt by the ANC-EFF coalition of doom to cling to power as they know they do not have the numbers to defeat the motion of no confidence [MONC] in their mayor, Amad, in council.
“They know they have embarrassed the residents of Johannesburg by electing Mayor Amad and are now attempting to protect themselves from embarrassment by facing a MONC.”
Ngobeni said ActionSA would pursue all avenues to ensure “the City’s executive is held accountable” for the dwindling service delivery throughout the city during his time as mayor.
The announcement to launch the motion by ActionSA was made on 11 April.
Speaking to News24 on Tuesday, ActionSA caucus spokesperson Sthembelo Majola said the council meeting, set for 25 April, was shifted to 10 May due to unknown reasons.
He said the ANC and EFF caucuses had yet to disclose their reasons for not attending the meeting to propose the motion.
“They did not give any reasons. They just put in a leave of absence for the entire caucus meeting.
“So obviously, what it appears to be from our side, and you can find out from them their reasons, we think this was an attempt to delay the process to give them time to have further negotiations.
“Before this meeting, the negotiations between them and the Patriotic Alliance had not reached a conclusion. We thought this was an attempt to get more hours to come up with a deal between themselves.”
The DA’s Mpho Phalatse and programming committee member Tyrell Meyers condemned the ANC for postponing several council meetings, including the draft budget consultations and state of the city address, for reasons unknown.
“This has proven beyond doubt that the ANC/EFF coalition has no interest in the plight of the residents of the City of Johannesburg who are crying out for service delivery.
“It is now very clear that this coalition will do anything to hold on to power for the sake of having access to the R77 billion city budget,” said Meyers.
Phalatse called for Amad’s resignation and pleaded with coalition partners to consider residents who were suffering from the lack of service delivery “which has worsened under his administration”.
“The residents need a stable city government that puts all the residents of Johannesburg first.
“The work begun under our ousted multi-party government will be continued if we vote out the current administration.
“The sole aim of our multi-party government was to alleviate the lack of service delivery that has plagued the city for 27 years,” Phalatse said.
Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie had also called on Amad to resign.
McKenzie announced the PA supported the motion by ActionSA to remove Amad, and he had put up his hand to become Johannesburg’s next mayor.
The calls for Amad to step down came after an interview with the SABC, where he revealed a private company had offered a loan of R9.5 billion to address service delivery problems and install innovative technology.
He was widely criticised after the interview and pressure was brought on him to resign; however, his party, Al Jama-Ah, declared its support for him, adding he was competent.
ANC Johannesburg caucus leader Dada Morero and EFF Gauteng spokesperson Nkululeko Dunga had not responded to News24 at the time of publication.
Their comments will be added once received.
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