Mayor of Johannesburg Herman Mashaba will not last in his new position should he go ahead with his plan to sell the city’s refuse removal entity Pikitup, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have said.

“We call on the city to disengage from this silly performance that only aims to sell Johannesburg in bits and pieces. Furthermore, the DA [Democratic Alliance] must desist from challenging pronouncements sacrosanct in our manifesto, or else they might need to ‘give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar’ and render Herman the first ‘weekend special’ mayor,” the EFF in Johannesburg said in a statement on Wednesday.

Mashaba, who took over from African National Congress (ANC) mayor Parks Tau, has been adamant even during the campaign trail ahead of the August 3 local government elections about his plans to privatise Pikitup and it break up into several different parts.

Mashaba’s Democratic Alliance (DA) took over the country’s financial capital, thanks to the EFF offering it its vote in order to unseat the ANC.

The red berets said Mashaba should attend to land issues urgently instead of destroying jobs at Pikitup.

“There is land in Kevin that he needs to expropriate to build a new suburb for the people of Setjwetla in Alexandra, [but] he decides to destabilise the city with an unnecessary venture,” the EFF said.

Mashaba’s plan went against the EFF’s stance against privatisation and outsourcing of key functions of the city, including refuse removal.