Al Jama-ah said it has not ruled out legal action against the DA following allegations that its party member and newly-elected Johannesburg Executive Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda has scammed people by running a bogus funeral investment scheme.
Gwamada was elected Mayor on Friday May 5 after getting 139 votes beating the DA’s hopeful Dr Mpho Phaalatse who got 68 votes against ActionSA’s Mfunzi Ngobeni’s 59.
Gwamanda’s nomination was backed by ANC-EFF partnership and the collaboration includes Cope, AIC, ATM, PA and Good Party.
No sooner had Gwamanda been elected Mayor than the news that he used to run an investment scheme started spreading on social media with allegations that he scammed the investors and never paid them for their investments through an entity called iThemba Lam Afrika.
This was followed by a DA statement on its social media account that the party would take the matter to the SAPS for Gwamanda to be investigated if he conned residents into investing in a funeral/investment scheme.
The DA caucus leader, Phalatse alleged that many people in Protea South were scammed through investment schemes and funeral covers.
The DA said the allegations cast aspersions on whether could be trusted with the responsibility of leading the City with 6 million people and overseeing the more than R70 billion budget for the City of Joburg.
However, the party has now conceded that there is no case against Gwamanda and called on people to report the matter to the police.
“Those affected have not yet gone to the police. They’re best placed to respond as to why. It is not too late to report this however. The Joburg DA is calling upon those affected to report the matter to the SAPS,” said Phalatse.
However, Al Jama-ah President Ganief Hendricks has rubbished the allegations and threatened legal action saying they are awaiting a response from their attorneys to tell them what they must do.
Al Jama-ah said it has also written to DA leader, Hellen Zille regarding the matter,
“So we don’t have anything in mind at the moment. All we have in mind is that the mayor must get down to business and ensure that there is service delivery,” said.
Hendricks said the party wants to prioritize service delivery and they will not waste time on the “DA’s stupid allegations”.
“On Friday we swore in the mayoral committee members after lunch and we told them there is no long weekend for them. They have got to get to work because we have already lost one week. So we are only focusing now on service delivery.
“We are focused on implementing the programmes that the collective have decided upon and we want the programmes to benefit the residents of Joburg. We are not going to waste one single minute on the DA’s stupid allegations,” said Hendricks.
