Mayor Election Delay Won’t Affect JHB Service Delivery
by NG EditorJOHANNESBURG – The Democratic Alliance (DA) has on Thursday dismissed the African National Congress’ (ANC) accusations that service delivery would collapse in Johannesburg, as the city awaits the election of a new mayor next week.
Speaker Vasco da Gama postponed the election, saying he would seek legal advice on the actual number of votes that make a majority.
The ANC has accused the DA of putting services at risk in an attempt to cling to power and Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile said he would close that vacuum.
Political parties are exchanging accusations as the scramble for the most sought-after municipality in the country ensues.
Maile said Da Gama had no business postponing the election of the mayor because he had created a vacuum.
“So, we cannot conveniently argue that position is not important now, because if that’s the argument of the DA, it’s just to suit their political posture.”
Maile said his legal team was looking at interventions to ensure that service delivery was not interrupted.
But DA provincial chair Mike Moriarty said there was no such thing, instead, the ANC was afraid.
“Once it became clear that Makhubo was the candidate, that was a huge problem and not just the problem for the EFF, it was a problem with the ANC.”
Maile said he won’t keep quiet simply because he would be accused of towing the party line.
The DA denied it was buying time but admitted it would use this window to woo the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
But the EFF said it was still backing its own candidate come Wednesday.