The African National Congress (ANC) in Johannesburg has announced plans to recall the city’s Executive Mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda of the Al Jama-ah party.
This move comes amid criticisms from civil organisations regarding Gwamanda’s performance, particularly his handling of basic service delivery and the introduction of a R200 surcharge for pre-paid electricity customers.Last week, Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks stated that Gwamanda would not step down.
However, ANC Johannesburg spokesperson Masilo Serekele confirmed that the party is finalising engagements with coalition partners and has reached an agreement with Al Jama-ah for Gwamanda to vacate his position.
Serekele said: “As things stand now, we are finalising engagements with our coalition partners. We have already engaged Al Jama-ah and in principle have agreed that when the time comes Kabelo Gwamanda will vacate the position of mayorship and give space for the African National Congress to take over the position of Mayorship. In terms of the time frames, you will understand that these kinds of engagements are complex. We believe that in the next number of days, we will conclude talks, there is a serious back and forth.”
.Regarding the contentious electricity surcharge introduced during the December budget review, Serekele mentioned that the ANC-led government would review it.
“Because the budget has already been passed, it would be illegal to scrap it. We will have to find a financial mechanism to intervene on that front. But the point I am trying to make is that it will not be an easy thing to scrap, we will have to adjust it,” Serekele added.
Story credit: SABC News
