‘BALL’S IN YOUR COURT’

PATRIOTIC Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie has announced he will resign as Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture on Tuesday unless Kenny Kunene gets his MMC post back.

McKenzie removed his PA deputy Kunene as MMC for Roads and Transport in Johannesburg two months ago after the former ZAR club owner was found at murder-accused Katiso "KT" Molefe’s house during a police bust.

McKenzie said the PA voluntarily withdrew Kunene “to spare the coalition the agony of answering questions about someone who is not from their party.”

Last week, McKenzie announced that Kunene was cleared in an independent probe by law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyer. 

But after Kunene was made a councillor again on Friday, McKenzie told reporters at a weekend event at Robben Island that it was not enough.

He said: "That's not good enough for us. Our deal is not for him to be a councillor. Our deal [with the ANC] is he will be MMC for roads and transport. 

“If Tuesday Kenny Kunene has not been told he's going back, I will resign. It will not only be me, the whole PA, all the Speakers, you will have a mass exodus."

McKenzie had earlier taken to Facebook on Thursday, pakking uit about events in Ekurhuleni, where the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) allegedly told the ANC they did not want the PA in the coalition. “We didn’t form part,” McKenzie said.

He added that in Johannesburg, the PA had initially secured two portfolios, Human Settlements and Roads and Transport, but later agreed to relinquish one.

McKenzie said: “We were approached by ANC to relinquish the post of Human Settlements to the IFP, we agreed because we wanted a stronger coalition.

“We were the only party willing to do that. We were left with one portfolio: Roads & Transport.”

The party then put forward Liam Jacobs as Kunene’s replacement, but the ANC’s Gauteng leadership, including Johannesburg ANC Chairperson and mayor Dada Morero, refused to swear him in, citing a lack of experience.

McKenzie pushed back, saying: “I had to point out to them how educated Liam is compared to people in the same position currently who have no matric.

“I also showed them that he already was an MP at a young age.”