A late night meeting between the African National Congress and Patriotic Alliance has agreed to re-appoint former transport MMC Kenny Kunene into his old post.
According to insiders, plans are afoot to pen the appointment letter to announce this move, which is expected to happen before Friday.
This comes after the Sunday Times reported on heated tensions between the coalition partners, which saw PA leader Gayton McKenzie threatening to withdraw his party from all working relations with the ANC. This included his resignation as sports, arts and culture minister in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet.
Ramaphosa, concerned about the stability of the country’s economic hub, had to intervene. He called for the contentious proposal for the swapping of EFF and PA MMC positions to be halted with immediate effect.
The directive came after McKenzie vowed to pull out of the government of national unity if his second-in-command Kunene was not sworn back into the mayoral committee by Tuesday.
However, provincial and regional leaders are understood to have called for a meeting to manage the process, to avoid being seen as bowing to a coalition partner’s pressure.
Gauteng ANC provincial spokesperson Mzi Khumalo told this publication that his party raised its displeasure at the PA’s conduct during the tensions.
“Firstly for us we do not work with threats. For us, as the ANC, the issue of ultimatums is neither here nor there. This was not part of the principles we agreed on when we put together a coalition government. We would not leave it unattended, we have raised it with them that we should not work like this ― we should work in the spirit of a coalition government.
“We have finalised our own consultation, and we have now engaged the PA. We are going to be engaging the EFF and we foresee that the matter will be resolved by Friday. We are confident that the matter will be resolved amicably.”
Khumalo explained that the purported delay was due to the party following its internal processes, which included consulting with all three layers of its structures.
“We work on the basis of the fact that we are not running the city alone, we are in a coalition government. One of the key principles is consultation. The mayor cannot just act on his own when there is a vacancy or challenge that arises, he cannot just take a decision by himself. There must be a decision between the region, province and national as the party within, as well as intra-party, those that we govern with.”
Sources with intricate knowledge of the situation have told TimesLIVE Premium that the decision to reinstate the PA deputy president was long taken by the ANC.
“We had long concluded that the seat is theirs. We didn’t understand now when there were rogue deadlines and demands being put on the table. They clearly are fuelled by emotion and they like threats.“
Kunene was hastily sworn back in as a City of Johannesburg councillor on Friday after he had voluntarily stepped down as MMC and resigned as a councillor after he was found at Kagisho ‘KT’ Molefe’s house ― just as the police pounced on Molefe to arrest him over allegations he had orchestrated the murder of Oupa Sefoka, also known as DJ Sumbody.
The PA deputy president is expected to receive his appointment letter on Thursday, or by the latest Friday.
Kunene was cleared of wrongdoing by an independent probe and sworn back in as a councillor last week.
Addressing PA supporters in a Facebook live stream on Tuesday night, Kunene confirmed that the party held high-level talks with the ANC in Johannesburg.
“We just had a meeting with the ANC here in Johannesburg. The national chair flew in this afternoon,” he said.
The PA delegation said it expected the agenda of the meeting with the ANC to focus on Kunene’s return to the mayoral committee. However, discussions reportedly broadened to other matters affecting Gauteng province.
We must emphasise that the meeting went very well for the PA. We are happy with the posture of the ANC. We have also dealt with the issue of the threat. We have put it aside. We have found common ground.
— Kenny Kunene
“We thought it would be a matter of Kunene after being sworn in as a councillor, should then be reappointed to his post. But the agenda was expanded,” said Kunene.
Kunene said the PA’s national executive committee would meet before Friday to consider the proposals made by the ANC.
“We must emphasise that the meeting went very well for the PA. We are happy with the posture of the ANC. We have also dealt with the issue of the threat. We have put it aside. We have found common ground,” said Kunene.
PA chief whip Marlon Daniels echoed Kunene’s remarks, saying the meeting went beyond expectations.
“We’ve got homework to do as the PA. Like the DP has eloquently put it, it wasn’t just one agenda item. We took advantage of this opportunity to add things to the agenda, which the ANC was receptive to,” said Daniels.
He added that the new items raised would require the party’s NEC to deliberate before final decisions are made.
“We are only a delegation of the NEC, not a full complement. No decisions get taken outside the interests of the organisation. Because of the additions to the agenda, we now have to take time out to meet as a collective and report back by Thursday,” said Daniels.
Kunene stressed that the talks had defused tensions and secured the PA’s continued participation in the GNU.
“This meeting has put to bed the issue of the resignation of the president or us withdrawing from coalitions. The proposals made sense, and we are quite excited,” he said.
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