FORMER eThekwini mayor, Zandile Gumede, has hit back at “envious” detractors following her business class trip to attend the State of the Nation Address in Cape Town.
Details of her trip made front page news of a local newspaper after Nicole Graham, Democratic Alliance eThekwini caucus leader, released a statement saying Gumede should have not been invited.
“Whilst President Ramaphosa waxed lyrical about cutting corruption and state corruption, the woman who brought eThekwini to its knees sat directly in front of him and applauded,” said Graham.
Gumede is currently out on bail for fraud and corruption charges relating to multimillion rand tender deal with Durban Solid Waste.
In a lengthy statement directed at Graham, Gumede said she attended the SONA in Cape Town in her capacity as a deputy president of SALGA (South African Local Government Association).
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“Under normal circumstances, as a public representative, it should not have worried me but this time it did,” she said. “The envious statement made by Councillor Nicole Graham was just another art of shifting focus from a pertinent discussion about the presence of the last apartheid president, FW de Klerk, who denies that he was presiding over a crime against humanity.”
“The fact remains that apartheid was a crime and that our land and economy remains in the hands of the minorities – and that will radically change. Nicole Graham is a benfeiciary of that system and it is in her best interest that we (are) diverted from reminding our people about the brutality of apartheid,” she said.
Graham, who also attended SONA, tweeted this on the day; “ Apartheid was a crime against humanity. The EFF’s behavior during SONA was stupid and undemocratic. Both things can be true. We are capable of complex thought.”
The former mayor also used the opportunity to insist on her innocence despite the charges of fraud and corruption against her.
She is due back in court on 8 August.
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