After a late-night meeting between the ANC and PA, the ANC has agreed to reappoint former transport member of the mayoral committee (MMC) Kenny Kunene into his old post.
According to insiders, the appointment letter is expected to be written before Friday.
PA leader Gayton McKenzie had threatened to withdraw his party from all working relations with the ANC. Those included his resignation as sports, arts and culture minister in President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet.
Ramaphosa, concerned about the stability of the country’s economic hub, had to intervene. He called for the contentious proposal for the swapping of EFF and PA MMC positions to be halted with immediate effect.
McKenzie had vowed to pull out of the government of national unity (GNU) if his second-in-command Kunene were not sworn into the mayoral committee by Tuesday. However, provincial and regional leaders are understood to have called for a meeting to manage the process, to avoid being seen to have bowed to a coalition partner’s pressure.
Gauteng ANC spokesperson Mzi Khumalo said his party raised its displeasure at the PA’s conduct during the tension.
“We do not work with threats. For us, as the ANC, the issue of ultimatums is neither here nor there. This was not part of the principles we agreed on when we put together a coalition government. We would not leave it unattended, we have raised it with them that we should not work like this ― we should work in the spirit of a coalition government.
“We have finalised our own consultation, and we have now engaged the PA. We are going to be engaging the EFF and we foresee that the matter will be resolved by Friday. We are confident that the matter will be resolved amicably.”
Khumalo explained that the purported delay was due to the party following its internal processes, which included consulting with all three layers of its structures.
“We work on the basis of the fact that we are not running the city alone, we are in a coalition government. One of the key principles is consultation. The mayor cannot just act on his own when there is a vacancy or challenge that arises, he cannot just take a decision by himself. There must be a decision between the region, province and national as the party within, as well as intraparty, those that we govern with.”
Sources with knowledge of the situation said the ANC made the decision to reinstate the PA deputy president some time ago
“We had long concluded that the seat is theirs. We didn’t understand now when there were rogue deadlines and demands being put on the table. They clearly are fuelled by emotion and they like threats.”
Kunene was hastily sworn back in as a City of Johannesburg councillor on Friday after he had voluntarily stepped down as MMC and resigned as a councillor after he was found at Katiso Molefe’s house, just as the police arrested Molefe over allegations he had orchestrated the murder of Oupa Sefoka, also known as DJ Sumbody.
Kunene was cleared of wrongdoing by an independent probe and sworn in as a councillor once again last week. He said the PA’s national executive committee would meet before Friday to consider the proposals made by the ANC.
“We must emphasise that the meeting went very well for the PA. We are happy with the posture of the ANC. We have also dealt with the issue of the threat. We have put it aside. We have found common ground,” said Kunene.
He stressed that the talks had defused tension and secured the PA’s continued participation in the GNU.
“This meeting has put to bed the issue of the resignation of the president or us withdrawing from coalitions. The proposals made sense, and we are quite excited,” he said.
TimesLIVE
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