Horse trading around mayor

JOZI: PATRIOTIC ALLIANCE ISSUES ULTIMATUM

- Itumeleng Mafisa

The government of local unity (GLU) is not falling apart, according to the ANC regional secretary in the City of Joburg, Sasabona Manganye.

This comes after the Patriotic Alliance (PA), one of the coalition partners in the municipality, threatened to leave the partnership if Kenny Kunene is not reappointed to his former position of MMC for transport.

The PA was instrumental in ensuring that Joburg mayor Dada Morero was appointed last year.

“There is no crisis; what needs to be done is that Kenny should just be sworn in as a councillor. They can then count the seven days from there,” Manganye said. “But that position is theirs, it belongs to them,”

PA spokesperson Steve Motale said yesterday Morero had been disrespecting the PA as a coalition partner.

Motale said the PA had negotiated for the position of MMC of transport when the GLU was formed in 2023.

“We used to have two MMC positions; we had transport and we had housing. They took housing away and gave it to the [Inkatha Freedom Party],” he said.