By: Sello Theletsane
JOHANNESBURG- After Joburg EFF councillor Musa Novela released a statement on Thursday alleging that Patriotic Alliance (PA) president Gayton McKenzie was running a “criminal syndicate” in the City of Johannesburg, the party responded on Friday by both dismissing the allegations and explaining that they and their president intended to sue for defamation.
Novela, the EFF’s regional chairperson in Johannesburg, alleged this “syndicate” was “led by the IFP and Gayton Mackenzie [sic]”.
Novela claimed that in the six months since the EFF and the DA had lost control of the city to the new Government of Local Unity, it had been turned into a “Gangstar Paradise [sic]” characterised by “threats, blackmailing, purging and blatant looting”.
They claimed there was “flagrant” disregard for governance protocols and that senior managers had allegedly been “purged”.
“So far the Gayton Mackenzie [sic] criminal syndicate has suspended or fired the CEO of Joburg Market, CEO of City Power, CEO of JPC, Acting CEO of MTC and the Chief of Police,” allegedly because they had “refused to take illigal [sic] instructions relating to procurement processes and opposed pressure to disengage from investigating criminal activities in their respective municipal entities”.
The EFF also took issue with the appointment of Leanne Williams as the CEO of the Joburg Market.
The PA’s MMC for Economic Development in the city, Lloyd Phillips, responded by saying that McKenzie had already started legal action against Novela “for his outrageous claims”.
“When it suits their aims, like it did in Nelson Mandela Bay, then we are supposedly the EFF’s comrades and part of the black caucus. Here in Johannesburg, where we had a part in voting the EFF out of power, they have nothing but insults for us.”
He said he and his party were “unrepentant about the contribution we made in saving this city from the grip of the EFF and their captured former mayor, Herman Mashaba”.
He said that even the DA had come to admit “that Mashaba was never theirs”.
“It’s the EFF who are the experts at capturing another party’s mayor and making him dance to their tune. They must not imagine we know about or have any interest in behaving like them.”
He added that Novela could “call our mayor all sorts of names too, but he has been the hardest-working mayor the PA has served alongside and under, and we have served under many”.
Phillips takes on the allegations
Phillips said it was “an exhausted fact by now that Gayton McKenzie had committed crimes nearly three decades ago”.
“He went to jail. He exposed corruption in jail. He came out and went to more than 1,000 schools to warn children about the dangers of a life of crime.
“Everyone who knows our president today knows his true character. They know he spends his time to help charitable organisations. They know he is working hard to improve the lives of poor South Africans.”
Phillips said McKenzie had already pledged to donate the R2 million he was in the process of suing Novela for “to the victims of VBS looting”. He also challenged the EFF to issue similarly “angry statements … about the Afrirent tender”, which Treasury recently ordered should be cancelled. That deal was approved during Mashaba’s mayoral term and was repeatedly linked to the EFF through numerous media investigations.
“We cannot be dictated to by the EFF. Mashaba is at home now. We will not be told by them who should be fired and not be fired. The deciding factor is not decided by them, or even us. It will be decided by who did wrong and who did right,” said Phillips.
He answered some of the other allegations by pointing out that the former CEO of the Joburg Market, Ayanda Kanana, had resigned after being selected as CEO of the Land Bank.
The Acting CEO of the Metro Trading Company “made it to the final round of interviews, but was not selected by the board after a proper, transparent process was followed with the assistance of the head of group governance and his team”.
Phillips added that Leanne Williams became the CEO of the Joburg Market “following a rigorous recruitment process led by the board and group governance, and she was put forward to the board by the recruitment panel as one of several candidates and selected based on her experience and skills”.
He said Novela was wrong to call her the PA’s deputy president, as she had resigned from the party several months earlier.
Phillips also revealed that the current head of the Joburg Property Company had taken special leave and an Acting CEO had been appointed.
“Not one senior manager has been suspended or dismissed in the past six months.”
He said he could not speak on “the ludicrousness of the allegations about the Chief of Police and the CEO of City Power”, as those entities did not fall under his department.
“Surely the most embarrassing thing in Councillor Novela’s statement is his attempt to sell the idea that we have been trying to get rid of people who have been investigating corruption in the city or have been opposed to corruption. The EFF and DA were the ones running this city from 2016 until December 2019. If there is any corruption to investigate, it would be their corruption.
“Indeed, we are still investigating and will be neither distracted nor dissuaded from continuing to do so even if the EFF produces more badly written and poorly spelled statements.
“Gayton McKenzie sits on no boards in our city. He holds no positions and has done no work for the metro, including in the Economic Development portfolio.”
‘Come directly’
Phillips said the EFF had called his party many slurs over the years and “we can probably only expect far more wailing from them, as they have been ousted from power in the City of Joburg, Tshwane and Mogale City. And, soon, in Nelson Mandela Bay too.
“They should behave with some dignity after losing power instead of throwing these childish tantrums.”
As a parting shot, he added that McKenzie would “not be reduced to arguing with juniors who have been sent by their leaders because they are afraid to take up their issues with our president directly”.
“If [EFF leader Julius] Malema has something he wants to say to Gayton, he should buckle up his trousers and just come out with it. He must stop sending staff who know nothing about either Gayton or his work.
“If Malema comes directly with his PA issues, he will be answered directly – not with the kind of nonsense accusations he has been dreaming up, but with facts.”
