Mashaba says ActionSA will hold executive to account when it gets Speaker position in Joburg

The City of Johannesburg will this week elect a new speaker after the resignation of Margret Arnolds.

Arnolds resigned last week after the election of the ANC’s Dada Morero as the new mayor. Her resignation came after ActionSA and the ANC struck a deal to get Morero elected.

ActionSA candidate up for speaker position

In an interview with The Citizen, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said the party will announce their candidate for the Speaker position on Tuesday.

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As part of the new deal ActionSA will get the speaker position as well as five committee chairpersons.

“This coming Wednesday there is a special council meeting with one agenda of electing a speaker and all the parties will be supporting an ActionSA speaker,” he said.

Mashaba insists his party will hold executive to account

Mashaba said the party would present capable leaders who will serve the residents of Johannesburg.

“We look at the 44 councillors and we looked at who is the best to serve for that,” he said.

He said despite being in an agreement with the ANC, his party would not shy away from holding the executive to account.

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“We will hold the executive to account but they should also hold us to account. But we want South Africans to know we won’t go into this arrangement in a hostile manner, but we will not cover for anyone and we do not want anyone to cover for us,” he said.

ActionSA policies

Mashaba said ActionSA will push some of their policies through the new government.

“We are going to bring back weekly cleaning programmes and we are going to deal with undocumented people in our city,” he said.

Meanwhile, Arnolds has now been appointed as the MMC for Finance, while former mayor Kabelo Gwamanda has been handed the community development portfolio.

The Speaker position is central in holding the executive to account through various means, such as investigations and the tabling of reports to council.

There are a number of crucial investigations that have not been concluded by the speaker’s office.