ActionSA’s Funzi Ngobeni accused ANC-EFF coalitions of using minority parties as scapegoats. [Picture: The Mail & Guardian]
The leader of ActionSA in Gauteng, Funzi Ngobeni, has accused the African National Congress (ANC) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) of using minority parties as scapegoats to avoid accountability through coalitions.
Just over a week before his party’s motion of no confidence in Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda was to be heard in council, Ngobeni said the ANC-EFF coalition arrangement in the metro gave them an excuse to pull strings.
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Motion of no-confidence
The motion was filed by ActionSA amidst Gwamanda’s hospitalisation as he had taken ill last week. The Al-Jama-ah member delivered his maiden State of the City Address after being elected with the backing of the ANC and EFF in Council last month.
Ngobeni, who previously ran for mayor but failed to secure enough votes, said they had hoped Gwamanda would clear the air on criminal allegations stacked against him.
“We asked him to use that opportunity to take the residents into his confidence on these allegations and clear the air so that we can move on, knowing we’ve got a mayor [whose] integrity is not tarnished,” said Ngobeni.
“He didn’t take our call seriously, he said nothing about this matter in his State of the City Address and we are holding him accountable with this instrument that we have which is the motion of no confidence.”
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Coalitions
The ANC and EFF struck a deal earlier this year in order to wrest control from the Democratic Alliance. The decision at the time was to throw their weight behind a minority candidate while disagreements between themselves were ironed out.
A motion of no-confidence successfully removed the DA’s Mpho Phalatse, paving the way for Al-Jama’ah’s Thapelo Amad and then Gwamanda to take office. Ngobeni accused the parties of using a minority party to evade accountability.
“The mayor ultimately is the one that takes the responsibility of the city and is the one that gets to be accountable. We suspect that they just want to pull the strings behind the scenes and use these individuals for their nefarious activities that they are probably planning,” he said.
The failure of any single party to gain an outright majority at the polls in hung councils like Johannesburg has placed service delivery in jeopardy. Numerous motions, resignations and deaths have seen mayor after mayor be removed, only to be replaced quicker than they could settle in.
