Kabelo Gwamanda is not an ANC mayor - Lesufi

Lesufi delivered an opening address at the ANC local government summit in Boksburg on Tuesday. 

The two-day summit seeks to engage all key stakeholders in local government on the challenges facing municipalities and to develop a plan focused on improving the delivery of services in all Gauteng municipalities. 

Lesufi told delegates attending the summit that the ANC voted to keep the DA out of power. 

The Al Jama-ah councillor was elected with the support of the ANC, EFF, and some of the minority parties in the council. 

"Anyone who will mislead you, to say the current mayor in Johannesburg is the mayor of the ANC is not true,” he said.  

“What we have done in Johannesburg, anything that was opposing the DA in the ballot paper we voted for it.” 

ActionSA has already threatened to table a motion of no confidence against Gwamanda following allegations of fraud levelled against him. 

The DA's Mpho Phalatse, who brought up the allegations, claimed to have information linking Gwamanda to the alleged “swindling and scamming” of members of the public through his company iThemba Lama Afrika. 

Lesufi said the ANC is ready for ActionSA's motion of no confidence. 

"We are asking our comrades in Johannesburg, to allow ActionSA which wants to auction our country to table that motion.

“Where we stand now in Joburg, we are unstoppable, any motion against us, we will crush that motion of [no] confidence in Johannesburg," says Lesufi. 

Lesufi further told delegates that the ruling party did not vote for the disgraced former Tshwane Mayor, Murunwa Makwarela, but voted against the DA.

Makwarela was later removed as the city's mayor and as a councillor after the High Court in Pretoria confirmed that his insolvency clearance certificate was fake. 

"So anyone who wants to accuse the ANC of voting for Makwarela is wrong, we voted against the DA and we are proud."

“The only problem was that a Doctor that was supposed to be a Reverand was not a Christian enough, to be honest with us," said Lesufi. 

Lesufi assured delegates that the mandate to remove the DA in all municipalities is progressing well. 

He says the party was now in a better place than it was after the 2021 municipal elections, in which it lost majorities in 11 municipalities in the province, including Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni. 

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