ANC secretary TK Nciza orders Joburg region to reverse decision to deploy cadres to city entities

The ANC in Gauteng has confirmed it instructed its Joburg regional counterparts to withdraw a resolution that sought to have its leadership impose undue influence on the city's entities.

This is despite the Joburg region denying it ever came up with such a controversial stance.

The Mail & Guardian recently reported that the ANC's high-ranking leaders in the region had “captured” Johannesburg entities despite not holding an outright majority in the council. 

The new chairs are:

• Maxwell Nedzamba, regional treasurer at Pikitup;
• Makhosini Kharodi at City Power;
• Bruce Serala at Johannesburg Water;
• Julius Maputla at the Johannesburg Development Agency;
• Simon Motha at the Johannesburg Property Company; and
• Nandipha Zonela at Johannesburg Tourism.

In the post-PEC lekgotla briefing on Monday, provincial secretary TK Nciza said their alarms were raised as soon as they got wind of the regional executive committee resolution, which they halted.

“We called them and told them it was not right, they cannot have a resolution like that. They went to the REC and made sure they rectified it,” he said. “There can't be any resolution like that. There cannot be resolution by a regional secretary saying that a leadership must be chairs of entities.”

However, regional secretary Sasabona Manganye had earlier denied that his collective ever took such a decision — contradicting Nciza's version of events.

“In Johannesburg we have no REC resolution that says REC members must be board chairs,” said Manganye. “What we have is a scenario where the city has issued an invite to individuals with specific skills and experience to apply to serve as the non-executive directors of the city's entities. Different people applied. I also applied by the way, unfortunately I didn't make it.

“There are those who made it in that particular process. There was never any resolution of the ANC to influence that process in terms of who must be what,” he insisted. 

The regional secretary said it was only the members of the mayoral committee that would decide who will chair the boards. He said boards must appoint capable individuals who enable the mayoral committee members to deliver services.

“Our mandate is clear, we want Joburg back to its former glory of being a world class African city.”

However, his party has a blemished track record of mayoral committee members employing unqualified and inexperienced individuals to serve on its boards, based on political and personal proximity.

In the last board term, the Sunday Times exposed the appointment of a tollgate cashier, a receptionist and a person with a grade 11 to the board of the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC), an entity that oversees the city’s 30,700-odd properties, worth about R8.7bn.

Those appointments, overseen by Joburg's mayoral committee member for economic development, Nomoya Mnisi, belonged to her ANC branch in Soweto, while others were members of her party zone in the west of Johannesburg.

In the establishment of the new boards, it seems the receptionist and a person with a grade 11 belonging to the ANC found their way back onto the boards.

Former group governance MMC and DA councillor Leah Knott said the process was easy to manipulate.

“When we came in and looked at the existing boards about January/February 2021, one of the first entities we reviewed was the Johannesburg Social Housing Company SOC [Joscho]. We found that on that board they had a hairdresser and a makeup artist, among others. There was not a single person qualified or experienced in anything to do with housing or social housing, hostels, or student accommodation — nothing.” 

Knott said it had become a problematic culture to appoint people with no experience or skills while political connections were prioritised. 

“The majority of the process is made up of politicians so if it is not done objectively and based on who is fit for purpose, you end up with a problem. This is why we see so many state-owned entities failing. 

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