Publications
Partners
Danny Jordaan, the football supremo who is on the verge of taking over as mayor of the Nelson Mandela Metro, says he is not a puppet that is being parachuted to help the ANC retain the troubled municipality next year.
“I have never been a puppet in my life and am not going to start being a puppet at this old age of mine. I have always done things that I believe in,” Jordaan said.
The newly appointed councillor and South African Football Association president said he was happy to be back home.
Jordaan was sworn in as a proportional representative councillor this morning in Port Elizabeth’s City Hall.
The ceremony, which was conducted by city manager Mpilo Mbambisa, lasted less than five minutes and saw mainly ANC councillors and various stakeholders at the chambers chanting and dancing as they welcomed the renowned football administrator into the beleaguered metro.
Jordaan’s swearing-in ceremony paves the way for him to be the next mayor of the metro as early as next week. A special council meeting was scheduled for May 28, at which he would be officially appointed as executive mayor.
“I’m back home … there is clearly a need to come home and deal with issues. I am happy to be part of a team [that will] restore the city to its name. This city is called Nelson Mandela. What must guide our work is always the question: what would Nelson Mandela have said, and what would he have done?
“I’m happy to be here. I’m not a mayor I’m just an ordinary councillor,” he said after being sworn in.
Other councillors sworn in along Jordaan were Bicks Ndoni, who was expected to be the new deputy mayor, and Litho Suka, a former member of Parliament earmarked for the position of ANC chief whip at the metro.
The appointment of the trio as councillors followed an announcement by the ANC’s top brass, led by deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa and ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, in Port Elizabeth on Monday about the change of guard at the metro.
Jordaan defended his role as Safa president and said there were no contradictions between this and his new responsibilities.
“I am a volunteer in football. I get no pay. I don’t have a credit card or petrol card. And even though am the president I don’t get a presidential allowance.”
Jordaan, who was a member of Safa for 25 years, said when he took up the presidency at the football association he had declined these perks because his goal was football development, not self-enrichment.
He said he was also not breaking any rules by accepting the new role at the metro, and added that many Safa executive members had other responsibilities outside the football association.
“I received congratulatory letters from [world football body] Fifa and [Africa body] Caf. They were surely not congratulating me for violating the constitution," said an irate Jordaan.
“I was elected by football people, and I can stand again. They would vote for me again, unanimously. That much I can tell you.”
Ndoni, the deputy mayor-in-waiting said the new metro leadership would hit the ground running and would make daring decisions.
“We are going to take daring decisions to make sure what is wrong is corrected. We will also ensure that we unite the ANC caucus behind us. Rest assured that we will take tough decisions. Things are not going to be the way they were yesterday. We will make sure that immediately as we take office that certain things that need to be done are done,” Ndoni said.
Meanwhile Suka, the incoming ANC chief whip, said their leadership would adopt an open-door policy.
“We will engage and be open, but where we need to stamp our authority, we will do so. We will not flinch,” Suka said.
