Malema: I don’t buy Msimanga’s reasons for resigning

EFF leader Julius Malema has rubbished Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga’s reason for stepping down from his position, saying it was “bizarre”. Msimanga announced on Friday that he was stepping down from the position to focus on his run for Gauteng premier.

Msimanga’s term in the mayoral office will come to an end next month, giving him more time to campaign for the position of premier of the Gauteng province as he is the DA’s candidate. Though the ANC believes Msimanga was pushed out of the party, Msimanga told the Sunday Times that he had been advised by the federal executive to resign and focus on campaigning to become Gauteng premier.

“The party said, if you continue doing the mayoral work you are going to short-change the people of Tshwane because you will be out there campaigning. They said, let’s get a replacement within the DA. They did not force me out. I could have said no, but at the same time I needed to make a decision. If I have accepted the candidacy, and the party puts money into it, I need to show my commitment. I needed to show that I can be the face of the campaign.”

But Malema said he was not buying Msimanga’s story.

“It’s something bizarre, it’s unheard of . We have a president who is a candidate for the ruling party for president and he’s not resigning to go and run a campaign, yet he is running a huge institution called South Africa and Solly Msimanga, who runs a small institution called the municipality of Tshwane says ‘no, I can’t do the two’. How is he going to preside over a province because it means that when we go to elections in 20-something, Solly will resign as a premier if we make him a premier, to go and campaign as a premier. It shows lack of capacity,” said Malema.

Also read: Solly Msimanga to step down as Tshwane mayor

The EFF leader claimed Msimanga’s resignation said more about the DA than Msimanga, saying it had “exposed” itself as a party that had different rules for white people and black people when it came to its leadership. He said there was more to the story because Msimanga could afford to leave his office to campaign with others.

“They have exposed themselves and I think there is something bigger than that, I don’t buy the story that it’s actually a campaign. People have campaigned before, yet occupying government positions, it has never affected them. There is a municipal manager there there are administrators there. It doesn’t require Solly to be there on a daily basis from 8 to 5. To say he’s not campaigning and therefore he won’t be able to carry his duties as a man is unheard of and leaves nothing to be desired.

“I suspect something bigger than that. Helen Zille was a mayor of Cape Town and a candidate for premiership of Western Cape, she continued to mayor and still won the elections and become a premier. So it looks like there are rules for whites and rules of blacks when it comes to DA leadership.”

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