THAPELO Amad resigns as City of Joburg Mayor.
He handed over the chains this evening, prior to the tabling of a motion of no confidence against him which was to be debated in council on Tuesday.
The Al Jama-ah councillor resignation follows clashes with other coalition parties and what broke the camel’s back was the R9.5-billion loan fund.
Gauteng ANC chairperson Panyaza Lesufi says “We thank him for preserving the unity of political parties in Johannesburg above his personal interests.”
He also pointed out the coalition parties accepted Amad’s resignation with “reluctance”.
“He didn’t resign because of the motion tomorrow, we’ve got the numbers. We were going to crush that motion against him. He’s not running away from the motion. We need to keep this coalition intact.
“There is no instability in Johannesburg, we have this government of local unity intact, just because a mayor is resigning does not mean there is instability. This coalition is standing, capable and will continue to do the work,” said Lesufi.
“Thapelo Amad gave it his best shot. There is no leader who is perfect, we still had confidence in him but if he felt that he needed to step away to ensure this coalition stays together, then that’s it.”
A new candidate for the mayoral position will be tabled.
On motions of no confidence against speaker Colleen Makhubele, Lesufi says they will oppose that.
Amad had claimed during interview with public broadcaster he secured a prospect for a R9.5-billion loan to fund “service delivery issues” and a “smart city” that did not sit well with opposition parties.
“This is really embarrassing, what is the mayor saying? What loan? Where and when was this discussed? Which company is giving this loan? We cannot continue defending such stupidity, we must admit that we played a part in this mess, we must fix our mistake soonest,” tweeted McKenzie following the interview.
The MMC for finance and ANC’s Dada Morero did not see eye-to-eye with Amad on the loan matter.
Image (Out of the burning ‘kitchen’. Thapelo Amad resigns as Mayor of Joburg).
