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The ANC Greater Johannesburg region admits that part of its motivation in submitting a motion of no confidence against Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba was its desire to regain power in the city.
“No political party sits in opposition benches to oppose forever. We oppose in order to expose the DA coalition and, where possible, wrestle power from them,” said ANC regional chairperson Geoff Makhubo.
He said this on Friday afternoon as the ANC Greater Johannesburg region was hosting a media briefing on the decisions of its regional executive committee, which resolved to instruct its deployees in the Joburg council to table motions of no confidence against mayor Herman Mashaba and other council office bearers.
He said since the party lost grip of the metro, part of its mandate has been to regain power.
“We exist to regain state power and use that power to change the lives of the people for the better,” said Makhubo.
He went on to argue that: “In fact Mashaba didn’t win the elections, the DA got 38% of the votes [in the 2016 municipal elections].”
Although regaining power was upper most in the ANC’s goals, Makhubo reiterated that this motion of no confidence was not based on merely seeking power but an attempt to deliver the city from Mashaba’s administration.
Makhubo has accused Mashaba’s administration of plunging the city into a financial crisis.
He said the crisis had been reached as a result of Mashaba’s administration being party to corrupt and “illegal awarding of tenders.”
Read: ANC confident Mashaba will be ousted in no confidence motion
“The city illegally awarded an institutional review tender which resulted in the out-of-court settlement with a complainant of R7 million and illegally awarded a contract to Mashaba’s favourite non-governmental organisation [the Field Band Foundation] to a run a drug rehabilitation programme that cost the city R11 million.”
Mashaba pre-empted the announcement by the ANC that it would be submitting a motion of no confidence against him and said it was a smokescreen by the party to deviate attention from the party’s own looting.
During the #AlexandraTotalShutdown Mashaba accused the ANC of looting the R1.3 billion funds meant for the Alexandra renewal project.
“The challenges faced by residents in Alexandra are substantial and the people of Alexandra deserve answers as to what became of the development which was promised by the ANC through the Alexandra Renewal Project,” Mashaba said at the time.
Makhubo, however, argued Mashaba was throwing in desperate attempts to divert attention from the real issues that gave rise to the motion of no confidence.
In 2017, the ANC also put forward a motion of no confidence against Mashaba, citing financial problems in the city. It was unsuccessful.
