The MMC for transport position has been vacant since July this year.
The regional secretary of the ANC in the City of Johannesburg, Sasabona Manganye, says the government of local unity (GLU) is not falling apart.
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,” he said.
Manganye said he understood the PA’s frustrations, but he said it would not be wise for them to “throw their toys out of the cot”.
PA spokesperson Steve Motale told The Citizen on Thursday that Morero had been disrespecting the PA as a coalition partner.
Accusations of disrespect
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 tousing. They took housing away and gave it to the IFP,” he said.
Motale said that after Kunene resigned from his position in July, the PA requested that Morero replace him with Liam Jacobs. But Morero reportedly had reservations.
Back door deals
Motale accused Morero of having struck a behind-the-scenes deal with the EFF top leadership for the PA to be given another position, rather than the one Kunene occupied.
“He has made his deal with Julius [Malema], and he is just furthering his personal interests. Why has he appointed himself as acting MMC of transport?” he said.
Motale said Kunene will be sworn in as a councillor in the coming days, adding that the ultimatum stands.
The Citizen has reached out to the EFF in Gauteng for comment and will publish its response once received.
Minority parties scramble to unite
Minority parties in Johannesburg have also rushed to cement their relationship and unite against stronger parties. They are significant partners in the GLU coalition and include Cope, UIM, Al-Jamaah, ATM, PAC, UDM and AHC.
A two-day lekgotla resolved that they should be a united force in the face of numerous challenges and changes in the city. These parties have also agreed to support each other in the upcoming elections.
“The parties agreed to identify wards where each has demonstrable strength and in those areas the designated party will contest with the full support of all other members,” the parties said in a statement.
ActionSA leaves because of Morero
The PA is not the only party that has walked out of governance because of Morero’s leadership. ActionSA earlier this year sacrificed its speaker position in Johannesburg because it refused to support Morero during a motion of no confidence.
The party’s leader, Herman Mashaba, at the time told The Citizen that Morero made decisions by himself and did not consult his coalition partners on matters such as the state of the city address and the budget.
He described the relationship as toxic. His party now sits in the opposition benches in Johannesburg.
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A critical time for Morero
These standoffs come as Morero’s leadership has come under attack because of service delivery-related issues.
He also faces a regional elective conference next month, where he will be challenged for the role of regional chairperson by his political nemesis, Loyiso Masuku.
Can Morero save the ANC?
Political analyst André Duvenhage believes that Morero may not be the right person to help the ANC navigate these challenges.
“I do not think that he has the personal qualities and abilities to be a leader under these difficult circumstances. I think he is basically hand-picked by the bigger leadership in the Gauteng environment to do a certain job and to make sure that he is the executive for orders coming from another framework.
“The long and the short of it is that the ANC does not have the plans and does not have the people to execute these plans. I think Morero is failing within this bigger comprehensive framework of the state of the province,” he said.
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