THE DA has accused Ekurhuleni Mayor Mondli Gungubele of creating his own private “municipality” similar to the official local government office.
This comes after intentions by the mayor of creating three new divisions in his office that will handle affairs relating to military veterans, women and youth. These divisions would entail hiring three “highly paid divisional heads” and about four senior specialists and researchers.
This, the DA said, was just a way of the mayor pushing his own political agenda, as the new divisions would not be subject to municipal regulation and management as they would report to the mayor only.
According to the DA’s Clr Eddie Taylor, these plans were rejected by the DA when they were presented at the March council meeting, stating the new structures should have been incorporated into the municipality’s office, if they were even necessary at all.
“The opposition questioned the mayor’s motives for establishing these divisions outside the municipality and suggested the real explanation was that the mayor had a political agenda he intended to keep hidden from oversight by opposition parties,” Taylor said.
The DA has also questioned the timing of the move to suddenly rush this development through the council a year before the next local government election due in 2016.
“What we are seeing is the creation of an ANC election ‘war room’ that will be directed by the mayor to influence these voting groups of the electorate under the guise of a municipal service but paid for by ratepayers.”
According to Taylor, advertisements appeared in weekend newspapers a week after the item was passed by the ANC majority, calling for applications for the divisional head positions.
“It is clear from the job descriptions that the incumbents will be ANC political commissars mandated to siphon-off municipal funds into hastily created opportunities to sweeten potential voters for the party.”
