Van Rooyen: A failed Mayor, a sacked Finance Minister, unqualified to be COGTA Minister
14 December 2015
The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes with grave concern the appointment of David van Rooyen as the new Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, replacing Pravin Gordhan.
Van Rooyen’s earlier appointment as Minister of Finance on Wednesday was met with a massive public outcry and a significant negative response from global and local markets. His newest appointment should be viewed with similar scepticism, because he is simply unqualified for Ministerial office.
Reports at the weekend allege that under his watch as Mayor of Merafong, the municipal deficit increased fivefold. Unauthorised, irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure increased dramatically too under van Rooyen’s mayoralty. Van Rooyen also oversaw the enormous increase in his own Mayoral salary, up 69.72% during his five years in office, and he oversaw the increase in Executive Councillors salaries by 76.67%
Within just his second year in the Mayoral Office in Merafong, van Rooyen oversaw R 3,177,859.00 unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, up from zero in the year he came to office.