Former Joburg mayor and Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader Mpho Phalatse is expected to lay charges against new Joburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda after accusing him of being a scammer.
Gwamanda, an Al Jama-ah councillor, was elected the city’s fifth mayor at a special council sitting on Friday after receiving 139 votes.
He was opposed by Phalatse, who received 68 votes, while ActionSA councillor Funzi Ngobeni got 59.
Coming clean
In a statement issued on Friday night, Phalatse gave Gwamanda 48 hours to come clean about his role in a ponzi scheme that ripped off many people.
“The People of Joburg deserve a mayor they can trust, not a swindler or a scammer! Publicly and in full view of live television and radio broadcast by several media houses, Cllr Gwamanda swore that he “will be faithful to the republic of South Africa and will obey, respect and uphold the constitution and all other laws of the republic.
“It is alleged that Cllr Kabelo Gwamanda, through his entity iThemba Lama Afrika, scammed innocent residents into investing in a funeral/investment scheme. However, the investors were left hanging dry when it was time to claim their benefits,” Phalate said.
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Gwamanda vetted
However, Al Jama-ah leader Ganief Hendricks denied the claims, saying Gwamanda was vetted by both the party and the African National Congress (ANC) before being elected.
He told The Citizen that prior to Al Jama-ah deploying Gwamanda as its representative for mayor in the City of Joburg, it asked for public objections.
“We did our vetting as a political party, but we wanted independent vetting as well before we proceeded with putting our candidates’ names in the hat. The ANC did a very thorough vetting as well and there was a show of solidarity for Gwamanda.
“So, this is just a sour grape. She has been evicted twice by the City of Joburg and now she is trying to be relevant,” Hendricks said.
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