By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Patriotic Alliance (PA) has announced its suspended deputy president, Kenny Kunene, as its mayoral candidate for Johannesburg.
PA leader Gayton McKenzie announced on Facebook on Monday that the party had resolved Kunene would be its candidate despite his suspension pending an internal investigation into his relationship with murder suspect Katiso “KT” Molefe.
“He has done very good work in the City of Joburg, and the DP [deputy president] will be our mayoral candidate for Joburg. We insist on that as he was a councillor. We will discuss with him that position, but the DP, we want his case to finish, “McKenzie said.
Kunene resigned as Joburg MMC for transport in July after the party suspended him for a month, pending an investigation into his relationship with Molefe, who was arrested for allegedly orchestrating the murder of Oupa Sefoka, aka DJ Sumbody, in 2022.
Kunene was at Molefe’s home during the arrest, raising questions about his ties with the murder accused. Molefe was on R100 000 bail for another murder when he was picked up.
McKenzie confirmed that Kunene and several other individuals had been interviewed by the law firm tasked with conducting the investigation.
The investigators have interviewed the DP, his witnesses, the journalist he said was there, and I think they interviewed other people. So that investigation is nearly done – we are just waiting for the results,” he said.
McKenzie confirmed that the final report, once complete, would be made public.
Meanwhile Liam Jacobs has been named as its new mayoral candidate for Cape Town – just a month after being sworn in as a councillor in Joburg.
“We are removing Liam Jacobs from council because I think they are intimidated, and they want him to be an honorary councillor – we know there are some DA guys that are intimidated by him. We are not going to let such talent sit there while we can use it elsewhere,” McKenzie added.
Fullview learnt the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were opposed to Jacobs taking up the position over his lack of local government experience.