As residents are still reeling from the aftermath of the Bree Street gas explosion, cracks have started to show in the relationship between politicians from the Gauteng government and the City of Johannesburg.
The executive leadership of the Johannesburg metro has accused Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi of politicizing the explosion.
On Wednesday, an explosion went off near the Bree Taxi Rank causing massive infrastructure damage, injuring 48 people and killing one.
Despite the tragedy still fresh in the minds of residents, it seems political leaders have started squabbling.
Two separate media briefings took place at Mary Fitzgerald Square on Thursday.
A media briefing was set to begin at 3:30 pm after local and provincial political leadership were to have received reports from emergency officials.
However, at 3pm, Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi held a media briefing where officials from the city were visibly absent.
After Lesufi was done with his briefing, the leadership of the metro also gave its own media briefing.
Executive Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said that going forward, technical people would be briefing the media on details of the disaster.
Johannesburg MMC for Public Safety Mgcini Tshwaku accused Lesufi of liking the spotlight and politicizing the tragedy.
“Maybe other individuals want to get some political mileage. That’s why maybe they’d want to politicize this issue. The communication that went out was that there was going to be one joint media briefing,” he said.
Another media briefing was set down for 8 pm on Thursday, where politicians will be taking a back seat.
-EWN
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