Mthunzi Mdwaba wants to be Gauteng premier after R5bn contract fallout

Businessman Mthunzi Mdwaba has thrown his name in the hat to contest for Gauteng premier in the upcoming elections. 

Mdwaba was announced as the UDM’s Gauteng premier candidate on Thursday. The businessman joined the party in February, months after his fallout with the labour department and the Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF) over a R5bn contract in a job-creation initiative. 

The government pulled the plug on the deal after Sunday Times’ investigative journalist Sabelo Skiti wrote a series of articles highlighting irregularities in the deal.

Mdwaba said he did not plan to go into politics but was compelled to answer to the calling. 

“It is with absolute humility that I am coming into this role. I do not for a second want to mislead anybody. This is not something I ever said I would be doing. But in the last few months things have taken their own momentum and I decided I would embrace this momentum and move with it. 

“A lot of my friends had tried to persuade me to get into roles like these in the past and I would refuse because I said I would be restricted to business activism which I have done locally for many years,” he said.

He said he would focus on prioritising a multibillion-rand budget to improve service delivery in Gauteng. 

“Gauteng is the largest province in the country with a budget of R165bn. I think that when you have a budget of that kind which is apportioned mainly to health and education, there is a disconnect as to why those two elements are some of the worst we have in the country,” he said. 

Mdwaba promised to bring about change in healthcare management. 

“Hospitals are faced with managerial problems. I think for me I would want to have meritocracy and not have situations of deploying people in positions because they are UDM members.” 

He was confident his leadership would see Gauteng's economy flourish. 

“The thing I have been able to do well in my life is to build businesses and ensure they become successful.

“You have a big province like Gauteng which accounts for 30% of the GDP of the country. I don't think you have to be a rocket scientist to work out that if Gauteng is a failed province, we will be a failed country. We don't have leadership in the province currently.”

WATCH the full video as he speaks about his plans: 

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