The DA will strongly oppose Zandile Gumede in any Legislature role

24 August 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has been reliably informed that disgraced former eThekwini Mayor, Zandile Gumede, has been nominated by the ANC for the position of Chairperson of the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) portfolio within the Legislature.

The information comes after the ANC last week deployed Gumede to the provincial parliament despite facing charges of fraud and corruption totalling than R400million, dating back to 2016.

In the event that information around her new role is true, this is the most shocking display of arrogance by the ANC. The DA calls on Premier Zikalala to come clean over his plans in terms of Zandile Gumede’s role within the provincial Legislature and to revise any plans he has of offering her a senior role.

The DA in KZN will never support Zandile Gumede as Chairperson of any committee, let alone CoGTA which is the service delivery arm of the provincial government.

Gumede was removed from her role as Mayor in May 2019 on the basis that her presence in the council had ‘impaired’ the functioning of the municipal executive. This is also the same person who literally destroyed the province’s only Metro. How then can she possibly be placed in charge of oversight across all of the provinces' municipalities?

Not only has the Premier acknowledged that Gumede’s appointment to the legislature is not ideal, he also promised the people of KZN that she would serve as an ordinary member and would not hold any position of responsibility. If he goes ahead and appoints her as CoGTA Chairperson, he would be both undermining the intelligence and opinion of the people of KZN.

Even after losing more than a million votes in KZN during the last election, it appears that the ANC is still ignoring the voice of the people. Because this is how the ANC treats people.

Issued by Zwakele Mncwango, Leader of the DA in the KZN Legislature, 24 August 2020