Johannesburg - Gauteng DA MPL Jack Bloom could face another ban from the legislature for claiming that the Guptas had missed on capturing the province because Paul Mashatile is the boss.
Mashatile is the ANC chairman in Gauteng and Human Settlements MEC.
“This province has been in the firm hands of another set of interests associated with long-running ANC provincial chairman Paul Mashatile,” Bloom said.
He made these statements during the debate on Premier David Makhura’s budget vote in the Gauteng Legislature on Tuesday.
Bloom had in the past made similar claims against Mashatile during the latter’s tenures as MEC for finance and housing.
On Tuesday, he accused Mashatile of having closed doors against the Guptas in favour of “another network of state capture”.
The allegations came after Makhura said Gauteng had in the last quarter lost more than 195 000 jobs in the manufacturing and construction sectors. The premier urged opposition parties to be part of the economic indaba on June 8 and 9, where strategies to resist job losses would be sought. Makhura managed to secure DA’s leader John Moodey’s support, but Bloom had none of it.
Bloom said the Gauteng government had lost R908 million to the National Treasury because the Human Settlements Department failed to spend the money, while the Health Department had failed to spend R738m last year.
“The honourable premier’s remedy for the housing failure was to bring back the honourable Paul Mashatile to head the Human Settlements Department.
“This is a man who was premier for only seven months and was cast aside by his own party in favour of a new premier who was mandated to clear up the mess he had left behind.
“And sad to say, (former)premier Nomvula Mokonyane left her own mess behind, which our present premier critiques by saying we need radical change. Yes, we do need a radical change from ANC mismanagement of this province,” Bloom said.
He said the problem was “cadre deployment, corruption and jobs for pals”.
Mashatile did not reply to the allegations.
The Star