Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda during his the State of the City Address at the Johannesburg council chambers in Braamfontein, 6 June 2023. Picture: The Citizen/ Neil McCartney
Just a month into his term, Johannesburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda faces a motion of no confidence aimed at removing him from office.
ActionSA filed a motion of no confidence against Gwamanda on Wednesday, citing allegations that he scammed residents out of funeral insurance investments through a ponzi scheme.
ActionSA’s caucus leader in the Joburg council, Funzi Ngobeni, said their motion of no confidence was initiated after they had urged Gwamanda to address the allegations of criminal wrongdoing during his state of the city address on Tuesday.
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Ngobeni said the mayor did not fulfill this expectation, leading the party to file the no-confidence motion in order to remove him from his position.
“This follows from a Carte Blanche expose which revealed that Gwamanda is alleged to have defrauded vulnerable people through a funeral scheme as well as serious questions about his claims of academic qualifications.
“Since the expose by Carte Blanche, Gwamanda has not taken the council or the residents of Johannesburg into his confidence to provide any assurance about these serious allegations of wrongdoing. Instead, the matter has been treated as an internal matter and coalition partners have helped shield Gwamanda from unscripted engagements with the media,” Ngobeni said in a statement.
Joburg residents cannot “blindly place their trust” in a mayor with unanswered fraud allegations who runs a municipality with a budget of R70 billion, Ngobeni added.
He said Gwamanda’s continued silence on the charges levelled against him “can only be construed as his wish not to incriminate himself by engaging the media and Johannesburg residents more broadly”.
Ngobeni said their motion is due to be heard at the council meeting scheduled for 20-21 June and will be conducted by an open show of hands.
He said the motion had the backing of the Inkatha Freedom Party, Freedom Front Plus, African Christian Democratic Party, and the United Democratic Movement.
The Democratic Alliance, according to Ngobeni, has failed to respond to their requests to support the motion.
“ActionSA welcomes this transparent process to distinguish between parties that merely talk about building an alternative to the ANC from those parties that are committed to building the alternative in South Africa.”
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