Joburg speaker does U-turn on new mayor

Johannesburg council speaker Colleen Makhubele, who was highly critical of Kabelo Gwamanda a week ago, has made an about-turn on the new mayor’s abilities and now describes him as “impressive”.

Makhubele recently wrote to Gwamanda and the 10 members of the mayoral committee (MMCs) to chastise them for their failure to attend scheduled integrated development planning sessions.

But on Monday she called him a “capable individual”.

“He has shown tremendous leadership since taking office. [We are] very impressed with the pace [with which] he has managed to bring himself up to speed with service deliveryrelated issues in the metro.”

Makhubele was speaking at a briefing called to outline the process and expectations of Gwamanda’s maiden state of the city address, which he is expected to deliver in council on Tuesday.

Gwamanda was elected executive mayor of Joburg, which has a budget of R73.3bn for 2021/22, on May 5. He is a councillor of the Al Jama-ah party, which has three seats in the 270-seat Joburg council.

There have been calls for Gwamanda to step down, with opposition councillors arguing he is not suitably qualified to lead SA’s largest and richest metro, which contributes almost 20% to national GDP and about 40% to Gauteng’s economy.

His election marked the sixth time political power changed hands in SA’s richest metro since 2021. The Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni and Tshwane metros are run by coalitions that political pundits say are more about positions than service delivery.

In the memorandum, which Business Day has seen, Makhubele took issue with the mayor’s and MMCs’ non-attendance at the integrated development plan (IDP) public meetings, which are crucial as they allow communities to give input on the draft IDP, a blueprint guiding the metro’s framework for development, and comment on issues such as the draft budget and proposed rates and tariffs.

She said such behaviour was “disappointing, appalling and undermines” processes of holding executives accountable to the public and legislature.

The memorandum’s subject line is: “Non-attendance by councillors, executive mayor and MMCs to the scheduled integrated development plan (IDP) sessions (public participation) is dereliction of duty.”

The speaker said non-attendance undermined the importance of the IDP sessions in enabling service delivery.

“This unprecedented unacceptable conduct is disrespectful to both our residents, stakeholders and communities that we are elected to represent and is paramount to contempt of council processes.”

Gwamanda fared poorly in his job, with his track record showing “non-attendance of all 17 IDP sessions as approved by council, and non-attendance to 10 of the 17 IDP sessions after being elected as executive mayor — a formal apology tendered to office of speaker”.

Makhubele said the mayor’s apology for non-attendance was a result of him not feeling well at some point”.

Gwamanda defended himself for not attending the sessions, saying in a statement: “I, within the provisions of my powers as the executive mayor in the City of Johannesburg, delegated MMCs to present the IDP at the various sessions.

“This ensured that my office through the delegated MMCs, were always present to present at the IDPs and in the interest of accountability and transparency, they were always supported by officials from both my office and the city’s administration.”

Council chief whip Sithembiso Zungu, who attended the briefing alongside Makhubele, said: “We all ought to attend these meetings, all of us 270 councillors of Joburg ... we did convene meetings with the mayor and MMCs, we spoke harshly against non-attendance. They apologised for the behaviour.”

Zungu said Gwamanda had been unwell for some time: “He couldn’t attend some of these IDPs, but he understands his role and responsibilities [regarding these] IDP [sessions].

“He understands the importance of these meetings. They apologised [and] showed remorse. We gave a line of march and there was full attendance in the last sitting of IDPS [last week Wednesday].”

Zungu said instability made it difficult for the city to run efficiently. However, he said the coalition running the metro, dubbed the government of local unity, would make sure the city was stabilised.

“It’s going to be difficult, it’s going to take time,” Zungu said.