Gwen Ngwenya responds to ‘angry’ Mashaba: ‘Three of 104 hardly signals a sea change’
The DA's head of policy did agree it was 'disappointing' that three DA councillors were said to have voted for Makhubo.
The DA’s MP and Head of Policy Gwen Ngwenya speaks in Randburg about land expropriation.
Gwen Ngwenya, who was recently rehired by the DA as its policy head, took to Twitter on Thursday to respond to former Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba‘s statement following the election on Wednesday of his replacement, the ANC’s Geoff Makhubo.
In the statement, the former mayor expressed sadness at the election of an allegedly corrupt Makhubo.
Mashaba took issue with reports that some DA councillors chose to vote for Makhubo rather than the party’s candidate, which he said “demonstrates why” he had to resign from the party.
“The DA of today is clearly not the DA that I joined – not when they support an allegedly corrupt person,” Mashaba said in the statement.
Ngwenya tweeted that though it “is disappointing” that three DA councillors were said to have voted for Makhubo, considering that the party has 104 councillors in the metro, it “hardly signals a sea change”.
Is the man who grew cosy with VBS looters seriously saying this without irony? 3 of 104 people is disappointing but hardly signals a sea change.
The challenge for SA is that 2 of the 3 largest parties are riddled with corruption. Meaning EFF or ANC, it’s a deal with the devil. https://t.co/WJEECemZPz
— Gwen Ngwenya (@GwenNgwenya) December 5, 2019
Meanwhile, during a media briefing on Thursday, Makhubo said he could not confirm whether some DA councillors had voted for him as the vote had been by way of secret ballot.
Following the ANC reclaiming Johannesburg through a mayoral election, the party’s secretary-general, Ace Magashule, claimed 11 DA councillors in the metro wanted to join them.
In response to a journalist’s question about this claim, Makhubo said only the ANC’s national leadership could deal with the matter.
(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)
For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.
