THE DA in Ekurhuleni has a new leader.
Fortune Mahano, previously the chairman of the DA caucus in Ekurhuleni, was elected as leader by the DA caucus on Monday night last week.
He replaces Shelley Loe, who had been leader since the previous local government elections. Before Loe, Eddie Taylor held this position since the formation of Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality in 2000.
The chief whip has also been replaced. This position will now be filled by Kempton Park ward councillor, André du Plessis. He replaces Heather Hart, who was chief whip for three months after Ashor Sarupen was deployed to drive the DA’s election campaign in 2014.
Tanya Campbell, who previously had been chairman of the DA caucus in Ekurhuleni, replaced Mahano in this position.
In his first speech at Ekurhuleni’s November council meeting in Germiston on Tuesday last week, Mahano said there was no revenge so complete as forgiveness.
He said we could not forget the past but could change our attitude towards it. He felt the debates in Ekurhuleni Metro revolved around race and not service delivery.
“We have a choice to either passively witness the damaging of our democracy or intervene.
“Damaging democracy include being suffocated by crony-capitalism, corruption and dishonesty, as well as people in power attacking an opponent rather than the opponent’s position and covering up corruption by hiding behind apartheid.”
Mahano described apartheid as an evil, ruthless and cruel system with a goal to separate South Africans.
“I believe the destiny of man is to unite and not to divide. If you keep on dividing you end up as a collection of monkeys throwing nuts at each other out of separate trees,” he said.
He said the DA would fight when Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality failed to deliver its people from “abject squalor” and poverty, when corruption and mismanagement of public money occurred and when the metro lost court cases because of bad advice from officials.
“The DA will defend the voters and not the officials.”
He assured the ANC and other parties in Ekurhuleni that the DA would oppose wrongs in the metro like bad administration, as well as irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure or tender irregularities.
“Unauthorised expenditure is not wastage. It simply means that you spend money that was not budgeted for. You compromise the financial stability of the municipality.”
He reminded the council that the majority of residents in the metro lived in absolute poverty.
“Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime,” he concluded.
