Gauteng premier David Makhura says DA calls for him to stand down shows a “desperation for relevance”.
“The planned tabling of the motion of no confidence by the DA in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature is a clear desperation for relevance and an attempt to remove the spotlight on the instability in their party,” Makhura’s spokesperson Vuyo Mhaga said on Monday.
The DA has been rocked by an exodus of prominent black leaders, with the latest being Makashule Gana who resigned last week Thursday as member of the party and legislature citing a trust deficit between citizens and political parties.
Other leaders of the official opposition party who have left include former KwaZulu-Natal MPL Mbali Ntuli, former MP Phumzile van Damme, former leaders Mmusi Maimane and Lindiwe Mazibuko, former Johannesburg mayor and now ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, former Gauteng leader John Moodey, former Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi and now ActionSA member and former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, who is now leader of the GOOD Party.
But despite of the exodus, DA-led multiparty coalitions are running the Gauteng metros of Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane, courtesy of a significant decline in the ANC’s national electoral support to less than 50% — for the first time since 1994.
In a media briefing on Monday, DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga, the party’s caucus leader in the provincial legislature, said Makhura's nearly eight years at the helm of the province brought crime to an all-time high.
“Look at the latest crime statistics. Gauteng SAPS stations dominate the top 30 of all crime stats across the country with a severe increase in crimes like hijackings, murder, and sexual offences,” Msimanga said.
He said from January to March 1,403 murder cases, 2,936 hijackings and 2,267 cases of sexual offences have been reported.
Given up
Crime is high because “little to nothing” has been done to halt unemployment in the province.
“Now, there are 2.6-million unemployed Gauteng residents, while 680,000 people have given up on looking for work.”
Msimanga also cited the scourge of corruption, saying projects aimed at building schools, houses and clinics are “strangled by the tentacles of corrupt cadres”. “None of this money has ever been recovered because there is simply no political will to do so.”
He said billions of rand of public funds were “devoured” by well-connect cadres, through the “hyperinflation of the price of PPE [personal protective equipment] at the height of a global [Covid-19] pandemic”.
The DA Gauteng leader said the R431m spent on decontamination and sanitising of schools during the pandemic could have been put to better use than lining the pockets of tenderpreneurs.
Gauteng residents are still awaiting the long overdue outcome into the criminal investigation into the Bank of Lisbon fire a few years ago in the Joburg CBD. “At the time of the fire, then MEC for infrastructure Jacob Mamabolo indicated that the building was only 21% compliant. More than likely, the delay is an attempt to shield implicated cadres,” said Msimanga.
“It is beyond thinkable that such a crucial institution could catch fire in the first place. It is criminal that to date no-one has been held to account.”
Step down
He said the DA in Gauteng will table a motion of no confidence in Makhura. “It is time this province and its people were served by someone who legitimately wants to make a change and improve their lives. The days of vapid leadership are numbered,” he said.
Makhura, the former chairperson of the ANC in the province, did not seek re-election at the provincial elective conference in June, were he was succeeded by his deputy Panyaza Lesufi. Makhura had told Business Day in the months leading up to the provincial elective congress that he would step down for whoever was elected chair so that his successor could do ground work for the ANC before the national elections in 2024.
Mhaga said the Gauteng government has over the last eight years spent considerable time and effort in introducing reforms aimed at institutionalising integrity and an ethical culture within the government system.
He said attempts at fighting corruption includes the provincial government establishing the open tender system in 2014; the appointment of the civil society-led Gauteng Ethics Advisory Council chaired by Terence Nombembe in 2017; and the establishment of the Integrity Management Unit (IMU) in the premier’s office, as well as the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) in 2018.
“The memorandum allows for the office of the premier to refer serious allegations relating to the affairs of any institution in the provincial government to the SIU [Special Investigating Unit] for investigation,” said Mhaga.
“However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, these efforts were disregarded, which opened the emergency procurement regulations to abuse, and corruption in PPE procurement and infrastructure projects.”
He said the provincial government, acting on the recommendations of the SIU, placed nine senior officials on precautionary suspension in December 2021 for contravening legislation regulating public procurement.
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