“I will never betray NHM”: Bishop Jones
“There were no concrete agreements that we could bind the party with, and I had to take a bold decision."
VEREENIGING. – The President of the New Horizon Movement (NHM), Bishop Vincent Jones, is said to have taken his executive by surprise when he took a different direction to vote with the African National Congress (ANC) to elect all three key positions for the Mayor, Speaker and Chief whip recently.
This comes at the function for the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) to swear in the new councillors during inauguration that took place at the Vereeniging City Hall on Monday.
The three key positions have given the ANC all powers to control the ailing municipality for the next five years. J
akes Sefatsa, Secretary General of the NHM said this was a total betrayal, and a big disappointment made by their President. Sefatsa said that ahead of the inauguration they had agreed that they were not going to vote with any party for coalition before they agreed on principles. He said that the ANC had not yet gone into a written agreement about which key positions of the MMCs they were going to give NHM.
Approached for comment after the inauguration, Jones said that they had several meetings with the ANC.
“There were no concrete agreements that we could bind the party with, and I had to take a bold decision. We had a broader understanding to work with the instead of the DA.” Jones further said that they opted to be with the ANC ‘in one bed’ for coalition. If there’s a sticky point need to be ironed out, the door is still open for discussion. The ANC has offered us a sit for MMC for Basic Services that we all agreed upon. I will never betray the people we started this journey together,” said Jones.
Unconfirmed reports have it that the ANC with 38 seats went into coalition with the PAC who have 2 seats, Community Solidarity Association with two sits, NHM one sit, African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) one sit, Vaal Independent Lekgotla one sit and PA with one sit.
