Gayton McKenzie appoints Kenny Kunene’s replacement in Johannesburg

The Patriotic Alliance (PA) has appointed former Democratic Alliance (DA) MP Liam Jacobs as their new councillor in the City of Johannesburg (COJ), following suspended party deputy president Kenny Kunene’s resignation from council.

Kunene resigned last week as councillor and mayoral committee member (MMC) of Transport after being found at the Sandton house of murder alleged Katiso “KT” Molefe

Molefe was arrested at his Sandton residence last week over alleged connections to the murder of Oupa John Sefoka, known as DJ Sumbody, in 2022. When police arrived to arrest Molefe, Kunene was at the home.

Kunene has said he is not friends with Molefe but visited the house as the owner of his media company, African News Global. He said that he was there with a young journalist to interview Molefe.

An investigation has since been launched.

Meanwhile, during a Facebook live address on Monday, 28 July, PA president Gayton McKenzie announced that Jacobs would be deployed to fill the vacant councillor seat.

Until last month, Jacobs was a Member of Parliament (MP) for the DA and leader of its student organisation from 2022 until his defection to the PA.

Jacobs was seen as a rising star in the DA, gaining attention through his social media videos on oversight visits and grilling officials.

Since he left, Jacobs continued with this style and has been involved in the PA, conducting by-election campaigns.

McKenzie said deploying Jacobs to the country’s economic hub would serve as “practice” for when he heads to the City of Tshwane as the PA’s mayoral candidate for Tshwane.

“I called him (Jacobs) today and told him that the bad thing about him is that he has no local government experience; he only has national experience,” said McKenzie.

“I told him that he is about to go and fix the potholes of Joburg so that when he runs [Tshwane], he knows what is expected of him.”

PA in Johannesburg and Jacob’s role

The PA has 10 seats in the CoJ council and holds one position in Mayor Dada Morero’s mayoral committee, which Kunene had.

Following the 2021 municipal elections, the PA received 2.93% of the vote in the city, enough for eight seats in the council. The party has since gained two more ward seats.

While Jacobs will fill Kunene’s council seat, it is not confirmed whether he will take over Kunene’s role as MMC for Transport. 

“Liam will be our new deployee. We want him to get the experience, fix the potholes, and continue the good work that the DP (deputy president) has been doing,” added the PA President

McKenzie also dismissed speculation that Jacobs has replaced Kunene as deputy president.

“There is no deputy president until the outcome of Kunene’s matter is finalised,” said McKenzie. Kunene remains suspended from party activities for 30 days.

McKenzie said that the PA will appoint a legal firm to investigate the circumstances of Kunene’s visit to Molefe, including how he obtained the address and whether a journalist actually accompanied him.

McKenzie, a close friend of Kunene, said the probe was necessary for transparency and claimed evidence would show Kunene was “set up.”