ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.
Luba Lesolle/Gallo Images
- ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says the ANC can’t be blamed for the fire that engulfed a Johannesburg building.
- Mbalula claims the ANC has been out of office for 10 years, despite evidence contrary to this.
- He says the ANC is being blamed by opposition political parties for all social ills.
ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula claims the ANC was voted out of power in 2016 and can’t be blamed for the fire that gripped a dilapidated Johannesburg building, killing at least 74 people.
Mbalula’s claims contradict the historical power shifts in the governance of Johannesburg, where the ANC held power for longer than the DA and its coalition partners.
“The ANC has been out of power for almost 10 years here in Johannesburg. The mayor was Herman Mashaba and Mpho Phalatse, and the mayor now is [Kabelo] Gwamanda. So, the ANC is not in charge of the City, and that is a fact,” Mbalula told the media on Friday.
The ANC currently has a handful of mayoral committee positions in Joburg. The government headed by Gwamanda was voted into power by the ANC twice with support from the EFF.
The ANC had governed Johannesburg since 2000, and the issues plaguing the City existed when the party held office, even under previous mayors.
The party was briefly out of power between 2016 and 2019 but got its position back when former DA member and mayor of Johannesburg, Mashaba, was voted out of office.
The ANC had three councillors voted in as mayors during this period when incumbents Geoff Makhubo and Jolidee Matongo died in office.
The last ANC-elected mayor of Johannesburg before the 2021 elections was Mpho Moerane, who died in a car accident.
Political parties who rushed to the inferno scene on Thursday accused the ANC of largely neglecting the metro.
Mbalula took issue with the accusations and said it was better that the focus be on fixing the administrative matters.
The ANC leader also claimed that when the City’s previous mayor, Parks Tau, was in charge, Johannesburg never had potholes.
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“Heads must roll in Joburg, but political bickering about who was in charge is not going to help. If there is wrongdoing by the government, this must be fully investigated. It is very nice and easy to blame when you are out of power and in the opposition. All they do every day is wake up and blame everything on the ANC.
“Some of these people forget that the ANC lost power. It is in their veins and blood, and they are waking up and blaming the ANC. You even forget that the ANC lost power. When Parks Tau was the mayor, there were no potholes in Johannesburg. The development you see in Soweto is former mayor Amos Masondo,” Mbalula said.
News24 reported that the burnt building was previously occupied by a women’s shelter called Usindiso Ministries Women Shelter.
The organisation was forced to close when the building was hijacked. The previous leaders of this women’s shelter said their concerns about threats were ignored by the City, eventually forcing it to close.