Craig Kotze
SEDIBENG.- Speculation has reached fever pitch that Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) Executive Mayor, Jacob Khawe, is about to resign – possibly as soon as this week – to occupy his elected post as Secretary General of the Gauteng ANC.
Khawe was elected to the crucial Secretary General post earlier this year in a move seen as underlining the importance of Emfuleni to the electoral fortunes of the ANC in 2019, especially in Gauteng, South Africa’s economic and financial hub.
However, no official confirmation of resignation was obtained from official local authority sources before going to press but both political and administration sources indicated a move was imminent and expected, possibly as soon as month-end October.
“There is no formal letter from the Executive Mayor to Council and he is continuing with mayoral business as usual,” mayoral spokesperson Lebo Mofokeng told Sedibeng Ster.
ELM – now under partial administration by Gauteng Province – is seen as potentially a decisive battleground region to influence provincial and even national electoral outcomes in the 2019 general election. In recent months Emfuleni has assumed an increasingly national media profile on a spectrum of core financial and service delivery issues alongside municipal sewage pollution of the Vaal River System.
Khawe was elected months ago but did not take up his new position in the Gauteng ANC, which many political sources attributed to his political foresight to first stabilise and turn around administration and service delivery in Emfuleni, and also to prevent an all-out and destructive succession battle within the local ruling ANC.
