By Zukile Majova
Political Editor
Kabelo Gwamanda has been missing in action since being elected Johannesburg’s mayor less than a month ago — and ANC secretary general Fikile Mbalula wants to know why.
Razzmatazz, as the ANC boss is known, said the party was concerned about Gwamanda’s absence just a few weeks after he’d been voted into power as the candidate of the ANC-EFF coalition.
Gwamanda represents the tiny Al Jama-ah party.
“The mayor of Johannesburg missing in action is what I have read about, it’s a matter of concern,” said Mbalula.
“Why is the mayor going awol, if he is? Together with the provincial leadership, I am going to have a conversation with our deployees to understand exactly what is happening.
“Not only the mayor but we want our public representatives to be visible,” said Mbalula.
The ANC boss implied Gwamanda was “sleeping on duty” by being away from office in his first month as leader of the council, at a time of crisis for the city.
“If a councillor is nowhere to be found then it means you are sleeping on duty. And that should be a concern to us and it is indeed a concern.”
The latest development is a lesson in irony because in December 2022, it was Muslim minority party Al Jama-ah that complained that the then DA mayor Mpho Phalatse was away without leave (awol) while parts of the city were ravaged by floods.
Hardly six months later, the tables have turned and Al Jama-ah’s Gwamanda has been missing in action for almost a month.
Gwamanda was elected mayor of Johannesburg last month and immediately took leave of absence amid two scandals that questioned his fitness for office and his ethical standing to hold such an office.
First he was accused of leading a burial society scheme that defrauded members.
That was quickly followed up by allegations that he had no matric certificate or formal education of any kind.
His party Al Jama-ah and the ANC, which leads the ruling coalition in Johannesburg, have been at pains trying to explain his absence.
In the case of Phalatse, she had gone to Limpopo for her wedding.
