Joburg leader must explain allegations
The DA caucus in the Johannesburg council has called for newly elected mayor Kabelo Gwamanda to account for accusations he is a scammer, saying he should come clean.
It is alleged Gwamanda, through his entity iThemba Lama Afrika, scammed innocent residents into investing in a funeral/investment scheme.
However, the investors were left high and dry when it was time to claim their benefits.
DA caucus leader Mpho Phalatse said it would be a tragedy for the six-million residents of the city to be subjected to “such questionable and dubious leadership”.
“It is concerning that there has since been damning information circulating about Gwamanda, which casts aspersions on whether he could be trusted with such responsibilities, including overseeing the more than R70bn budget of the City of Johannesburg,” she said.
Gwamanda was elected into the position on Friday, filling the vacancy left by the resignation of former mayor Thapelo Amad, also from the Al Jamaah party.
The allegations surfaced just hours after his election, before his official first day in office yesterday.
Phalatse said the allegations circulating on social media suggested that Gwamanda may have flouted the financial laws of this country and swindled and scammed members of the public.
“It is for these reasons that the DA in Johannesburg will be bringing these allegations to the attention of the SAPS for further investigation, along with a victim of this scheme.”
The DA called for the mayor to clear his name.
“Hence we suggest that the executive mayor must, in less than 48 hours, take the public into his confidence by holding a public media briefing to provide clarity and assure the public that he will not interfere with this investigation,” Phalatse said.
However, Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks poured cold water on the claims, saying the mayor was thoroughly vetted.
“The media now wants to aid and abet the DA to push this narrative to undermine the executive mayor, to undermine Al Jama-ah and the collective.
“They are not going to succeed,” he said.
Despite his defence of Gwamanda’s candidature, Ganief admitted he was not personally involved in the vetting processes.
“National intelligence does oversight on mayors and so on.
“We left it to the experts to do the vetting — we just wanted a clean bill of health from them,” he said.