‘Drama queen’ Mashaba won’t blackmail me – Maile

Cogta MEC in Gauteng Lebohang Maile says he will not be blackmailed by “drama queen” Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba into placing the municipality under administration despite having “enough” to do so.

“We have enough to place DA led metros Tshwane and Johannesburg under administration,” Maile said on Tuesday.

Maile was outlining the state of all 11 Gauteng municipalities, announcing that he has established a committee of inquiry into allegations of corruption.

He flagged the two DA-led metros as the worst, calling Tshwane the leader of the pack.

In the same breath, Maile praised Ekurhuleni run by the ANC’s Mzwandile Masina.

Maile said Tshwane was not flagged by him but by the Auditor General’s report as being the worst when it came to unauthorised, irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure.

Maile threatened to take the two metros under administration, denying that the threat was a result of the metros being controlled by the DA.

He added that the provincial government had not yet placed the two metros under administration despite “glaring weaknesses and challenges in Johannesburg and Tshwane”.

Maile, who had last week received a challenge from Mashaba daring him to place the metro under administration, accused Mashaba of “lawlessness”.

“I have huge files from Johannesburg people complaining,” he said, adding that Mashaba had, since 2016, appointed several managers unlawfully without the approval of the province.

“That is lawlessness, that’s ungovernable. We have not acted. There is serious allegations about how the [Johannesburg Metro Police] boss in Johannesburg was appointed including qualifications… If our preoccupation was about party politics we would have long put them under administration but we have not done that, there is enough but that is not our preoccupation.

“The mayor of Johannesburg, out of panic last week, he challenges me to put them under administration. I will, at the right time if I have to. We will not be blackmailed because [of] Mashaba, the drama queen. We are not scared that if we put him under admin it must be an issue. We will. He must not be in a hurry. When we do it, it will be for a good cause not because of party politics,” he added.

Maile warned Mashaba to work with the provincial government if he survived an upcoming motion of no confidence against him on Thursday.

“He must work with us kicking and screaming. There are more issues in Tshwane and Johannesburg than there is in Ekurhuleni and on that basis we could put them under admin but we are not. Not because we are scared but we want to work with municipalities. We extend an olive branch to work with us,” he said.

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