The leadership of the ANC and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) are set to meet on Tuesday, after an impasse over the reappointment of PA deputy president Kenny Kunene as a mayoral committee member (MMC) in Johannesburg threatened to collapse the relationship between the two parties.
Business Day has confirmed that Kunene was sworn in as a councillor on Friday and that he is likely to be returned to the post he formerly held as MMC of transport, after he was cleared in an investigation initiated by the party into allegations of his ties to murder accused Katiso Molefe.
Kunene was found at Molefe’s home as the latter was arrested for the murder of music producer Oupa Sefoka. An investigation initiated by the PA and conducted by law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr cleared Kunene of wrongdoing, though it did not interview Molefe in the probe.
After Kunene vacated his post as transport MMC, Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero promised the post to the EFF, another partner in the ANC-led coalition running the city. Reacting to this, the PA threatened to pull out of the coalition with the ANC in Joburg and countrywide, including at national level, where it forms part of the government of national unity (GNU).
Reinstatement deadline stands
PA leader Gayton McKenzie confirmed on Sunday that progress had been made in the impasse but reiterated that Kunene should be reinstated to the post by Tuesday. He also confirmed that the ANC had requested a meeting with the PA leadership this week.
McKenzie described Morero as a “one-man wrecking ball” in the manner in which he was running Johannesburg and the coalition.
On reports in the Sunday Times indicating that President Cyril Ramaphosa had intervened directly to ensure that Kunene was reinstated, McKenzie said he believed that this was the case, though he had not spoken to the president.
“I take President Ramaphosa at his word. I would take his word to the bank; I trust him,” he told Business Day on Sunday.
McKenzie said Morero’s leadership style was what “makes people look to the likes of Helen Zille”. He was critical of Morero’s attempt to replace the PA with the EFF in the transport portfolio, saying this violated the agreement between the two parties.
Zille was confirmed as the DA’s mayoral candidate in the city last weekend.
The ANC in Joburg had not immediately responded to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, former president Jacob Zuma’s MK party moved in to push the PA to support its pending motion of no confidence in Ramaphosa, which it lodged in July. However, McKenzie stressed that the PA would not support such a motion, even if it were to withdraw from the GNU. “I will support the GNU even from the outside,” he said.
McKenzie confirmed on Friday that MK and the EFF had approached him to support the motion as the impasse over Kunene’s post in Joburg continued.
“I don’t want to vote against Ramaphosa; my fight with the ANC has got nothing to do with the good work I see he’s trying to do … I will not join all these parties that approach us, like MK, all of them.
“The very same EFF that they are fighting for in the City of Johannesburg [sic] are the people that ask our people to support the vote of no confidence against the president,” he said.
MK submitted amendments to its motion in September and was told that parliament was “processing it”. The party cited rising crime, economic mismanagement and national security as reasons for its no-confidence bid.
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