The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng says it has written to the Speaker of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, Ntombi Mekgwe, requesting that a special sitting be convened urgently to debate a motion of no confidence in Premier David Makhura.
The DA says it is calling for the immediate removal of Makhura after he was implicated in a number of PPE corruption scandals. DA’s Shadow MEC for Community Safety, Michael Shackleton, says the party believes Makhura is attempting to evade accountability.
“I think we have to ask ourselves why is he paid for a job called Premier? Does he oversee the office of the Premier or not? In our view, he is using semantics to evade accountability and state that it was his office that gave the names to the former CFO of the Gauteng Health Department. It is extremely unlikely that he didn’t know and we called for an urgent motion of no confidence in Makhura. The motion is on the audit paper now and we believe it will be heard in the Gauteng Leg soon.”
The DA’s move comes amid the ANC Youth League’s call for the Premier to appear before the ANC’s Gauteng Integrity Commission over the corruption claims.
Makhura has indicated that he will subject himself to the commission should the government party ask him to.
His spokesperson, Vuyo Mhaga, says that Makhura has noted an error in a Special Investigating Unit’s report that is at the centre of the storm and has asked the unit to investigate.
“The allegations really do not have basis. The only thing that happened is that the judge erred in summarising a judgement in part of a line. He actually said that the premier was involved in corruption. The premier has also asked the SIU to investigate those particular allegations.”
The DA claims more than R2.2 billion has not been accounted for since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March last year.
The party alleges that it is in possession of an affidavit made by former Gauteng Health CFO, Kabelo Lehloenya in which he implicates Makhura for his alleged involvement in the appointment of six companies to supply PPE. The matter is one of a number of PPE corruption scandals in the province, with the latest being over the more than R430 million spent to disinfect and deep-clean schools in the province.
Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s briefing on PPE corruption:
