Luthuli House and ANC Gauteng top five officials threatened to expel rogue councillors from the governing party if they did not toe the party line to vote for Kabelo Gwamanda as the new City of Joburg mayor.
The ANC councillors are said to have attempted to break rank in retaliation after Joburg ANC regional chairperson Dada Morero was not fielded as the mayoral candidate.
But their no-nonsense political principals warned them that they would be dismissed from the organisation if they cocked a snook at their marching orders.
Like dogs with their tails between their legs, the recalcitrant councillors eventually voted for Gwamanda of Al-Jama-ah.
According to ANC insiders, Morero’s supporters within the ANC Joburg caucus had to be read the riot act by the provincial leadership and Luthuli House to toe the party line and vote for Gwamanda.
The councillors who wanted to go rogue had apparently insisted that Morero be put forward as the mayoral candidate against the agreement of the parties in the ANC-EFF coalition.
The ANC-EFF coalition is built on an agreement that mayors, where they are in cooperation, must go to small parties.
“Luthuli House and Gauteng PEC are in sync. The problem is those comrades in the Joburg region who believe that the ANC must take the mayorship, which presents a challenge because the agreement we have with all the parties we work with is that we are going to give the mayoral seat to smaller parties,” said an informant in Gauteng.
“Dada (Morero) wanted himself because he really wants that mayoral chain.
“Somehow, he convinced the councillors who believe in his cause to threaten that they will not vote if it is not him, but we told them in no uncertain terms that we will expel them if they do not toe the party line.”
Morero denied he sponsored the councillors to defy the party line that did not favour him for mayorship.
According to him, the understanding that the top political job in the city must be given to a small party was one he had long embraced. “People should not lie. What in fact happened is that the caucus felt undermined by how some people addressed them like children and voting cows. Councillors only felt respected when the SG (Fikile Mbalula) addressed them.”
Morero said all the Joburg caucus wanted to clarify was the new framework developed by the last NEC meeting, which was unfortunately overtaken by events of the ANC-EFF agreement, which pre-dates the NEC resolution.
But a regional leader said it was clear that the ANC would not have things easy in Joburg if Morero was not given the nod.
“If you look at how the first council meeting collapsed, look at the ANC councillors who walked out led by this fellow called Gadaffi, they were all Dada’s people.
“So, you could see right there the driving force. However, some of us were disturbed by their guts because the ANC could remove them by the mere stroke of a pen,” said our mole.
Morero said he was not going to be derailed by accusations as he was implementing the mandate of the ANC in caucus and in council.
“I am the elected regional chairperson and I have the responsibility to provide direction to not only to caucus but ANC structures in the region,” he said.
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