Zandile Gumede retains high-flying SALGA position and jets into SONA

14 February 2020

Guests at yesterday’s State of the Nation Address(SONA)  in Cape Town were surprised to see former eThekwini Mayor, Zandile Gumede, seated in the main chamber of the National Assembly. She flew into Cape Town, comfortably seated in business class. Who paid for this?

Her placecard at SONA indicated that she was representing SALGA, the South African Local Government Association, which is a public entity that accounts to Parliament. The role of SALGA is to ‘represent, promote and protect’ the interests of local government.

Zandile Gumede, who is out on R50 000 bail for fraud and corruption, now totalling R389 million, remains it’s Deputy President. She attended the SALGA National Executive Committee meeting on Wednesday in Durban, indicating that she remains very much involved in its business.

Whilst President Ramaphosa waxed lyrical about cutting corruption and state corruption, the woman who brought eThekwini to its knees sat directly in front of him and applauded.

Since her arrest in May 2019, Gumede remained Mayor for three months at a salary of R115 000 per month. After her ‘recall’, she has stayed on as an ordinary Councillor in eThekwini. This means that in addition to the huge bill of fraud and corruption, she has earned almost R600 000 of taxpayers money whilst out on bail.

A further four Councillors have been arrested, but the other 56 mentioned in the court proceedings as having worked with Gumede to execute her corrupt schemes remain unaccounted for.

If Ramaphosa was serious about corruption, he wouldn’t allow Zandile Gumede anywhere near a red carpet.

Issued by Nicole Graham, DA EThekwini Caucus Leader, 14 February 2020