Note to Editors: Please find a soundbite by Leah Potgieter MP in English here
Today, 29 October 2024, the renaming of Sandton Drive in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) made its way to the parliamentary floor. The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling on an urgent stop to the renaming process, until a full, independent, audit of all submissions gathered during the public participation process has been completed.
The principles of our participatory democracy are being undermined in Johannesburg. That much is clear.
The Former Mayor, and now fraud accused Cllr Kabelo Gwamanda announced two hours before the submission deadline that he had gathered 100 000 submissions in support of renaming Sandton Drive. He proceeded to host a city funded event to meet with only one interested party, Africa4Palestine, where these submissions were delivered to Gauteng Provincial Government.
This event was hosted despite the DA gathering over 5500 submissions against the renaming of Sandton Drive, from parties with a direct interest in the renaming. Those parties were not consulted, nor invited to the theatrical delivery of submissions.
The key issue, however, is that the so called 100 000 submissions received by Cllr Gwamanda are mired duplicates, unsigned, unauthored and lack key details for proper verification.
Gwamanda made it clear that the city has already decided on the renaming. He is quoted as saying “…the city has, ultimately, decided on the renaming. Public participation is a mandatory process, but it would have been a decision that has already been taken.”
It is time we call these so-called submissions out for what they are – a despicable act of undermining the constitution, and our democratic public participation processes.
We demand that an independent audit of all submissions received during the public participation process is undertaken. Gwamanda’s fraud cannot be allowed to spill over into our democratic processes.