Pretoria - City of Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse said they had anecdotal and documented evidence the ANC planned to corrupt, capture and collapse the municipality if it returned to power.
Phalatse was speaking at a media briefing on Thursday on developments at the city since she was reinstated as mayor by the Johannesburg high court on October 25.
She said if the ANC got the keys to the city, its bank accounts would be empty like never before.
Phalatse added that the ANC was willing to collapse the city to grab power.
She said this has been demonstrated by how the previous mayor, Dada Morero, had behaved concerning the delayed R2 billion short-term loan from the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
According to Phalatse, a report on this issue was supposed to have been revealed at the last council sitting, but had been blocked, and had been further brushed aside owing to the cancellation of Thursday’s council meeting.
Phalatse was expected to face another motion of no confidence on Thursday.
However, Joburg council speaker Colleen Makhubele dropped a resolution on the motion on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
Phalatse said her fight to be mayor had never been a fight about the position, but rather a struggle for the rule of law and the survival of the city.
She further refuted claims by Morero that under the DA administration the city had defaulted on its credit obligations to Eskom.
Phalatse said they had nothing to hide about the city’s finances, and audited figures would be released before council.
“Much was said about the finances of the city, because of course that is where the attention of the corrupt is focused. There was little to no truth to what was said, in the main because the figures are unaudited.”
Meanwhile, the ANC has made it clear on numerous occasions that it will not given up on its efforts to remove Phalatse.
The party has already failed twice to have her removed from office.
The ANC is understood to be in talks with the EFF to plot the DA’s removal in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.
The ANC is understood to be willing to back an EFF mayor in Ekurhuleni, in exchange for the EFF backing the ANC in Joburg.
IOL