The decision to have suspended Patriotic Alliance (PA) deputy president Kenny Kunene as the party’s candidate for Johannesburg mayor was taken long before his suspension, sources said on Tuesday.
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 “TK” Molefe.
Sources told the Mail & Guardian this was after the party’s national executive committee decided earlier in the day that, despite Kunene still not being cleared in the internal inquiry, he should still be the candidate for the city’s mayoral chains.
“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 Johannesburg’s transport MMC 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. Kunene told the M&G at the time that he did not know Molefe and that “I was at the wrong place, at the wrong time for the right reasons”.
On Tuesday, a senior PA source said Kunene being a mayoral candidate had nothing to do with being cleared from the internal party investigation, saying the report was still awaited. They said the executive committee had decided to stick with Kunene being the mayoral candidacy.
“We can’t come and say we are changing our decision. What if the report clears him, so we continue with our decisions? If there are issues with the report, then we deal with those issues,” they said.
“The person has stepped back, but we are saying we have confidence. When the report comes, we can still change our decision. We can’t hold on to the Johannesburg mayor’s candidate, and you announce everywhere else.”
The M&G understands that Kunene was not in the executive committee meeting.
Another source said the party had to make the announcement because other parties were already naming their candidates.
Last month, the DA announced Cilliers Brink as its mayoral candidate in Tshwane, and sources in the party told the M&G that its federal chair Helen Zille was increasingly likely to be the mayoral candidate for Johannesburg. A DA source said internal polling had identified Zille as their best candidate and that an announcement on this was close.
Meanwhile, the ANC met all its councillors on Monday ahead of the 2026 local government elections.
“The DA is announcing its mayoral candidates, the ANC called its councillors and they’re readying themselves. We know who our councillor candidates are for the areas. We always announce mayor candidates earlier; otherwise, we then have people wanting to choose themselves,” the PA source said of Monday’s announcement about Kunene.
In his Facebook address, McKenzie said the party’s investigation of his deputy was nearing an end. He said Kunene had been interviewed, as had everyone else they needed to talk to.
The party had said the investigations would take a month, but almost two months have passed.
“People were saying: What’s happening now with the case of the DP. You said, in 30 days. I’m not the one investigating this matter. I told you who’s investigating it,” McKenzie said.
“We must wait, because we can’t interfere during the investigation. If we interfere, then you’re going to go like: ‘Ah, you’re interfering, he’s interfering again’.”
Patriotic Alliance sources say that despite investigations into the deputy president’s links to murder suspect Katiso Molefe, they have confidence in him
