The caucus leader said current mayor Kabelo Gwamanda was an “ANC puppet” that seemed oblivious to what was happening in the city.The party said it wrote to city manager Floyd Brink requesting a full a full forensic investigation into all activities of the Johannesburg Property Company, and it was clear from his response that, despite him being able to take action, he was unwilling to.
“It is also evident that the MMC of finance is not in touch with the city’s financial state. A Cogta oversight engagement revealed that the city’s unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure has increased by 44%, all this while the city has an unfunded budget,” she said. Echeozonjoku said under the previous DA-led government, the budgeting process had been a box-ticking exercise, citing that they embarked on a rebasing exercise to reduce the budget to at least R59bn, then proposed a zero rate increase to get the city back on track.
However, she said all these decisions and actions were reversed when the ANC-EFF-PA coalition came into power.