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- The Patriotic Alliance has responded to the ANC in the greater Johannesburg area, threatening to take it to court.
- This, after the ANC made the decision to end its coalition.
- The Palestinian Authority said the basis for the dissolution stemmed from the suspension of the top executives of the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC).
The Patriotic Alliance (PA) struck back at the ANC in the greater Johannesburg area, threatening to take it to court after the ruling party severed ties with its coalition partner.
On Tuesday night, the ANC confirmed in a statement that it would terminate its coalition with the Palestinian Authority after the two parties failed to agree on how to handle governance issues in municipal entities.
The Patriotic Alliance was in charge of the economic development portfolio in the metro.
Johannesburg ANC Secretary Dada Morero cited the lack of understanding of the separation between party and state, suspension of employees without following proper procedure, and lack of respect for good governance by the Palestinian Authority as key to the collapse of the coalition.
“The ANC understands that the parties involved in the Government of Local Unity (GLU) modeled an agreement to build a local government that has the capacity to, among others, provide a democratic and accountable government for local communities and improve the capacity of the local state to fulfill its mandate, guided by the National Development Plan (NDP), South Africa’s development plan to address unemployment, poverty and inequality within the municipality, “Morero said.
Reply
He added that the ANC would not compromise with the agreement and the memorandum of understanding taken with the advent of the formation of the GLU, as leader of the majority party.
In response, the leader of the Palestinian Authority, Gayton McKenzie, said that the ANC had violated its coalition agreement.
The ANC coalition was formed after former Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba resigned, leaving a vacuum in the office. This led the ANC to retake the subway attracting the Independent African Congress (AIC), Al Jama-ah, the People’s Congress (Cope), the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the Patriotic Alliance (PA) and the Movement United Democratic (UDM). .
The ANC currently has 121 seats, the IFP five and the AIC four. Cope, UDM, Al Jama-ah and PA have one seat each. The DA currently has 103 seats and the EFF 30.
“The ANC would do well to remember that they already agreed last year – along with all other parties in the Local Government of Unity (GLU) – that disputes between any of the coalition partners in the City would have to be handled accordingly. with a clear pose approach.
“This included that the parties to any dispute would have to go through a dispute resolution process and that these matters would have to be raised to the Political Management Council (PMC), made up of members from all parties to the GLU to obtain unanimous consent. It will not happen, and therefore the ANC’s unilateral decision to sever its relationship with the Palestinian Authority and endanger the GLU is subject to legal dispute, “McKenzie said.
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The Patriotic Alliance said the basis for the dissolution stemmed from the suspension of the top executives of the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC), who, it claimed, signed the award of multimillion-dollar Covid-19 cleaning and sanitation contracts to 80 companies.
These companies were placed on an emergency panel established without JPC following normal bidding procedures, the Palestinian Authority said.
Last week, Cooperative Governance MEC Lebogang Maile wrote to Mayor Geoff Makhubo asking for clarity on the City’s inability to compile a budget that anticipates deviations from Covid-19, as well as the irregular appointment of senior managers and corruption related to acquisitions of Covid-19.
The Patriotic Alliance claimed that nearly R50 million was spent on a questionable Covid-19 cleanup exercise. McKenzie alleged that a hired department head had benefited from cleaning work awarded to one of his companies and that a company owned by the boss’s wife also received Covid-19 cleaning work.
“As a Palestinian Authority, we refuse to look the other way when evidence emerges of possible corruption in City-owned entities in a department that we were entrusted to manage in this coalition. We cannot allow ANC comrades to steal from entities. where we have supervision, and then we will be at fault, never.
“We pleaded with the ANC to allow good governance and ethical processes to take place and to leave the individuals involved in full paid suspension so that they are afforded the least possible opportunity to interfere in investigations. If their innocence, they can be. Last month, this same ANC told us that they were aware of ‘some corruption’ at JPC, but they did not consider what happened there as theft, “McKenzie added.
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