The ANC and Gayton McKenzie's Patriotic Alliance (PA) are embroiled in a finger-pointing match as their marriage of convenience collapses in the City of Joburg.
In the red corner is the ANC, accusing the PA of disregarding good governance and running entities belonging to the city like a spaza shop.
In the blue corner is the PA, insisting its only sin was dealing with “corrupt ANC comrades” in the city’s economic development entities that have been under PA control since the birth of the coalition late last year.
The ANC this week served divorce papers on the PA, accusing them of “failure to separate party from state”.
This after the PA fired the member of the mayoral committee responsible for economic development, Lloyd Phillips, a responsibility reserved for mayor Geoff Makhubo.
The fallout between the two parties comes after the Sunday Times lifted the lid on how the PA was accused of capturing three key entities under the city’s economic development portfolio which they controlled.
A fortnight ago the newspaper reported how the PA had made changes in the boards of the Joburg Property Company (JPC), Joburg Market and the Metro Trading Company, filling them with individuals aligned to the party.
McKenzie, PA president, publicly boasted on more than two occasions how he does “not play with power” as several executives of the three entities were placed on suspension while some were allegedly pushed to resign.
The PA was also accused of having an “obsession” with procurement-related issues in the three entities since taking control.
The three entities in question have a combined budget of R2bn.
The ANC this week said enough was enough, bringing its marriage to the PA to an end.
“The ANC in the Greater Johannesburg Region has officially ended relations with the Patriotic Alliance as it relates to the coalition arrangements,” said ANC Joburg regional secretary Dada Morero.
“This comes after both parties could not agree on how to handle matters of governance in the municipal entities.
“Failure to understand the separation between the party and the state, suspension of employees without following proper procedure and a lack of due regard for good governance by the PA are key to the collapse of the infant coalition.”
The ANC said it was confident this will not affect its control of the city through the government of local unity coalition arrangement, which includes the Inkatha Freedom Party, African Independent Congress, United Democratic Movement, Al-Jama-ah and Cope.
Regional spokesperson Sasabona Manganye said the ANC was confident of winning four of the five wards up for the taking in next week’s by-elections.
“The DA is in a crisis and we are hoping this will work in our favour. The people of Johannesburg who are voting on November 11 can see for themselves the DA has failed to govern the city, and that the ANC, which is committed to clean governance, is the solution,” said Manganye.
The PA accused the ANC of booting them because they suspended three of their “comrades” who were executives at JPC.
“No one in the PA had known at the time of their suspensions that these were ANC comrades. That was certainly not the reason they were suspended and it had not informed the decision,” the party said.
“The issue against them was that they had signed off on multimillion-rand Covid-19 cleaning and sanitisation contracts to 80 companies.
“These companies were placed on an emergency panel that was established without JPC following normal tender procedures. Most of these companies given Covid-19 cleaning contracts had no background, experience or certification in cleaning of any kind, never mind the specialisation required to deal effectively with the pandemic.”
The ANC-led coalition without the PA would need to win at least one of the wards being contested on November 11 and keep all its other partners happy to have a majority in the 270-seat council.
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