Johannesburg residents are being forced to pay the price for the ANC’s reckless abuse of power and disregard for the law.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) condemns the ANC’s decision to involve the City Manager and senior City of Johannesburg officials in ANC political activities, following confirmed reports that they attended the ANC Regional Lekgotla. This conduct collapses the separation between party and state, and residents suffer the consequences.
The Constitution and municipal legislation are clear that municipal officials are accountable to council, not political party structures, and must remain politically neutral at all times. When senior officials attend governing party meetings, that neutrality is destroyed and public trust in the City’s administration is undermined.
Even more alarming are allegations that City funds may have been used to transport ANC members to January 8 celebrations. If confirmed, this would violate the Municipal Finance Management Act, which prohibits the use of public money for party-political purposes. Residents cannot be expected to fund ANC campaigning while enduring power outages, crumbling roads and collapsing waste collection.
The ANC’s internal factional battles are now spilling into the administration of the City of Johannesburg. Instead of fixing service delivery failures, the ANC is using the machinery of the state for political interests while communities wait weeks for repairs and basic services.
Johannesburg is governed through council, where all political parties are represented. There is no justification for the City Manager and senior municipal leadership to attend political party meetings. This behaviour confirms the ANC’s belief that City institutions exist to serve the party, not the people.
As a party committed to fairness, transparency and accountability, the DA has formally written to the City Manager demanding:
- Confirmation on whether City funds were used to pay for ANC January 8 bus transport; and
- That the governance presentation on the state of City entities, allegedly delivered at the ANC Regional Lekgotla, be shared with the Democratic Alliance as the Official Opposition.
The DA stands with the residents of Johannesburg. We will not stand idly by while public money is diverted for political campaigning and residents are left to endure worsening service delivery collapse.
We will pursue accountability through every available oversight mechanism.