Johannesburg - The appointment of David van Rooyen as new the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) was a concern, as predecessor minister Pravin Gordhan had brought stability to the department, the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) said on Monday.
“Minister Van Rooyen is no stranger to local government. He was head of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) in the North West and former executive mayor of the Merafong municipality, a history which is of great concern to us.
“He was not able to effectively run one municipality and now has been tasked as the general overseer of all municipalities,” the union said.
“We hope that his experience at Merafong will not be felt throughout the country.” Van Rooyen has been placed in charge of the country's 278 municipalities.
“e was on Sunday removed as finance minister just four days after his appointment as finance minister by President Jacob Zuma. He was subsequently replaced by former finance minister Gordhan.
Gordhan, who until Sunday headed Cogta, was finance minister between 2009 and 2014.
He was replaced as finance minister by Nhlanhla Nene who was sacked by Zuma last week.
The removal of Nene sent shockwaves across the country and saw the rand plunging to new lows as market jitters in the financial sector sank in.
Van Rooyen was the whip of Parliament's standing committee on finance, and also served as whip of the economic transformation cluster.
AFRICAN NEWS AGENCY