The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Mike Moriarty has expressed extreme disappointment over the appointment of the new Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Geoff Makhubo. The African National Congress (ANC) candidate, Makhubo won with 137 votes.
This means the key metro will now once again be governed by the ruling party, which it lost to a DA-led coalition government in the 2016 municipal elections. However, Makhubo was implicated in a tender fraud scam.
His business allegedly received R30 million in a deal with the Gupta-linked Regiments Capital, but was later cleared. Moriarty has described today as a very sad day.
“Well I am not feeling particularly good. I feel very disappointed that there are councillors that saw fit to vote in somebody who is thoroughly compromised with allegations of corruption. We all know about the R30 million contract that he profited from, from the City of Johannesburg. It’s the residents of Johannesburg money that went there and some of it even while he was MMC for Finance. If that is the indication then we say well everything that we’ve been saying about the ANC is true. They are mired in corruption and incapable of self-correcting and unfortunately, these people have been returned to office and will now resume looting as they did prior to Herman Mashaba taking over in 2016,” says Moriarty.
