The African National Congress in the Greater Joburg Region on Sunday accused the Gauteng provincial government of abusing state resources to further the Democratic Alliance’s political ends.
“This comes after observations that the new Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba has been using the metro’s communication resources and outright bending the rules of engagement between government and political party in the institution,” ANC spokesman Jolidee Matongo said in a statement.
Matongo said that the Mashaba had allegedly been forcing local government employees to issue politically slanted media statements.
“The excessive hypocritical abuse of state resources by the DA in Johannesburg has taken priority over service delivery to the residents of the city in a desperate ongoing attempt to discredit the former ANC administration of the metro,” Matongo said.
“The DA also issued statements pointing fingers at the ANC for two failed community meetings in Orange Farm, alleged withholding of just over 2,000 title deeds which were in fact only issued by the Deeds Office shortly before the recent elections.”
Matongo said that the DA had made misleading and false statements that City employees were instructed to issue without editing.
“Under an ANC administration led by the disciplined Comrade Parks Tau, who is also the ANC Greater Johannesburg Region Chairperson, there was no unethical co-branding between government and political party,” Matongo said.
“Provincial government leadership cannot turn a blind eye to the new culture of abuse and intimidation in a government institution by the DA in Johannesburg and other DA-run municipalities. We therefore appeal to the Gauteng Premier David Makhura to intervene and bring to a halt this blatant abuse of state resources by the DA.”
Mashaba’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
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