The City of Johannesburg mayor Kabelo Gwamanda was a no-show at his first State of the City debate this morning. This comes a day after he delivered his maiden State of the City address on Tuesday. The mayor was expected to respond to councillors today.

ILL HEALTH

In a statement, the city said Gwamanda is currently receiving medical attention after taking ill during the debate on the State of the City address. "The Executive Mayor has been unwell since yesterday morning, however, given the significance and importance of the day to Council and residents of the city, he unfortunately went against medical advice and attended to the State of the City address. He was seen by his medical team immediately after the address yesterday, they advised him to excuse himself immediately on Wednesday for his own good," read the statement. Addressing the council, DA whip Leah Knott said councillors debating the address was a fruitless exercise if he was not going to be present in the chambers to hear it.

 BLAMING THE DA FOR THE CITY'S FINANCIAL TROUBLES

During his maiden address on Tuesday, Gwamanda blamed the city's financial woes on the DA-led multi-party government. "What we know now as fact, is that the city's finances remain strained. Following the tabling of a conceptually flawed budget by the Multiparty Government, and the resultant clandestine management of the City's finances, the Government of Local Unity (GLU) found itself in a budget rebasing exercise in the adjustment budget process, and is grappling with finding innovative, novel and financially prudent mechanisms to ensure that service delivery continues," Gwamanda said. He added that by the end of June 2021, the GLU's audited financial statements reflected a city with a healthy cash balance of R6.6 billion. "However, upon our return in January 2023 when we took over from the Multiparty Government, we found a near-bankrupt municipality sitting with over R6 billion in unpaid supplier invoices," he said, adding that the multiparty government, approved a short-term loan facility to begin to clear the unpaid invoices. "The reality is that without a financially sound city, we will not be able to invest as required in our core municipal mandate of delivering basic services, ensuring the security of electricity and water supply, efficient roads infrastructure and the many other service delivery mandates that demand immediate attention," the mayor said.

DA RESPOND

Responding to the accusations, newly elected DA Joburg Caucus leader, Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku said they are not surprised by the mayor's maiden speech. "The mayor is clearly out of touch with what is happening in the city. He is playing a blame game with what happened with the previous multi-party government," Kayser-Echeozonjoku said. She added that some of the issues and plans the mayor mentioned were initiated by the DA-led multi-party government. " Basically the mayor has no plan and he is repeating all the programs that were initiated by the DA-led multi-party government," she added.