Joburg speaker accused of delaying attempts to evict her, mayor

Johannesburg speaker Colleen Makhubele has been criticised for "deliberately delaying" attempts to evict her from office, alongside embattled mayor Kabelo Gwamanda.

Makhubele is facing a two-month-old no-confidence motion sponsored by ActionSA following accusations that she absconded her council duties citing illness, only to attend to internal COPE squabbles at a Tshwane council meeting the same day.

At the time, ActionSA had also fielded a motion against former mayor Thapelo Amad, who resigned before the motion got to council.

Gwamanda also faces the threat of a chop over the criminal accusations of fraud, following the revelation that a funeral scheme he ran in Johannesburg was never registered at the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) and therefore operated illegally.

Gwamanda rubbished the claims that he scammed residents through his entity, iThemba Lama Afrika, into investing in a funeral scheme that left investors hanging dry.

ActionSA was expecting to table these motions at council on Wednesday.

ActionSA has accused Makhubele of blocking the process as a resolution was taken to prioritise council reports and the approval of the year planner and pushing the no-confidence motions for the next meeting.

ActionSA caucus leader Funzi Ngobeni said the delays were a clear attempt to protect the mayor from accountability.

"Speaker Makhubele and the ANC-EFF coalition, which elected Gwamanda as a mayor to gain access to the city’s coffers, are protecting the mayor from accountability by delaying a motion against him," he said.

Ngobeni said Gwamanda has a serious case to answer and is not fit to be mayor when there are accusations that he defrauded the very residents he is supposed to serve.

"We see it as an attempt to protect herself and the executive mayor. If you say you are not tabling any motions at this upcoming sitting, when there are two motions relating to herself and Gwamanda, that says something about the neutrality of that decision," ActionSA Johannesburg caucus spokesperson Sthembelo Majola told TimesLIVE.

Majola said the upcoming council had a relatively shorter agenda than usual, with fewer items, which fuelled the idea that time was not a hindrance or a factor in Makhubele's decision-making.

Ngobeni said his party will write to Makhubele asking why she chose not to table the no-confidence motions at the council programming committee.

"We will continue talks with other opposition parties represented in the Johannesburg council to ensure that the office of the first citizen of this great city is occupied only by men and women of integrity who will put the interests of the residents first."   – TimesLIVE