The newly elected mayor of Ekurhuleni, DA’s Alderman Tania Campbell, promises a dramatic turnaround in service delivery in the metro and described her election as a change residents had waited far too long to realise.
Campbell gave the undertaking on November 22 during a marathon inaugural council meeting, where the DA achieved victory as it grabbed the ANC-led municipality, an unexpected turn of event that stunned those gathered at the council sitting.
During the first Ekurhuleni council sitting held at the metro’s council chamber in Germiston, the party took the top three council positions.
Campbell, who served as the DA caucus leader, was elected as the first female mayor of the City since the formation of the metro in 2000 – bringing the ANC’s 20 years of governance in the metro to an end.
The sitting also saw DA councillor Raymond Dlamini elected as the speaker of the council, and DA councillor Khetha Shandu announced as the Chief Whip of the council.
Campbell was elected into the hot seat with 116 votes, beating ANC former mayor Alderman Mzwandile Masina, who received 105 votes in the 224-seat council. There was one spoilt vote and one cancelled vote.
Of the 222 councillors who voted, Dlamini received 116 votes, beating ANC nominee councillor former MMC for Community Services Dorah Mlambo who received 104 votes. There were two spoiled ballots.
Although the DA said it had not entered into agreements with other parties to form a coalition government, it appears it secured the position with the help of the numbers from other parties, including the EFF and ActionSA.
Campbell, however, said it would be important to work with other political parties going forward to ensure a smooth running of the council.
In her acceptance speech shortly after taking the oath, Campbell said the new administration’s focus would be on addressing the longstanding service delivery issues in the City. She pointed out that these issues include the never-ending series of power and water outages, poor waste management and a high unemployment rate.
Campbell also vowed to ensure that the process to issue tenders is done transparently and fairly and ensure there’s value for money.
She said now is the time to get things done in Ekurhuleni.
“Now is not the time for more promises, now is the time for us to get things done,” she said to the cheers of DA councillors.
“The challenges in our city are great and it will take a team effort to overcome. Therefore, I would like to invite all parties in this chamber today to take hands with us so that we can build an exceptional city that our residents will be proud to live and work in and for those outside wanting to move and settle their businesses here,” said Campbell.
“This is the change our residents have been waiting for.
“For far too long, people have been living in conditions that are substandard in Ekurhuleni.
“Our residents have been living in a metro where service delivery is nearly non-existent. Where millions of rand have been spent on housing projects, business centres and substations and yet there is nothing to show for it. This ends today.
“We know that over the last week, the entire country has been plagued by load-shedding, but in Ekurhuleni nearly every day, residents are subjected to countless power outages, costing businesses money and our residents their hard-earned money that ends up in the bin because it has gone rotten.
“No more. We will immediately start the process of fixing the electricity problems that seem to endlessly plague our metro. Not having enough supplies in the store to replace simple electricity infrastructure must end so that we can fix power outages quicker.
“No longer will we be living in filth – as pointed out by the Public Protector due to waste not being collected regularly. This is a direct violation of our human rights and it ends now.
“Access to dignified housing is another right enshrined in our Constitution. We cannot have Mega Housing projects that only exist on paper but not in foundations. Our people cannot be subjected to this slow pace or non-existence pace of service delivery any longer.
“Service delivery to all residents in our metro can only be delivered if we are out there interacting with our people daily.
“My job and your job is to get things done and that cannot be done from sitting in an office. Our people want to see action and they want to see action from us.”
Campbell pointed out that she will soon be announcing her Mayoral Committee team, which will help steer and ensure fast and effective service delivery to residents.
“I urge you to remember that it is our residents who have elected us to represent them in this municipal council. We need to speak and advocate on their behalf. Let’s take hands and work together. Let’s get out there and get things done!”
Campbell was announced as DA mayoral candidate at the council sitting after the then DA mayoral candidate Refiloe Nts’heke withdrew as a councillor candidate in the metro.
Former Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina conceded defeat and congratulated the newly elected mayor, Campbell.
He said it’s not all lost and described the event as democracy, saying the ANC would be going back to the drawing board, as it needs to find out what would have necessitated the outcome of the elections.
“What I can tell you is that we are not going to be permanent in the opposition bench as we are going to work hard to ensure that we serve our people.
“We are leaving and we are not bitter, we are just going to do our work to ensure that from here, our people get service delivery.
“As the ANC, we won almost 78 of the City’s wards, so we have got a huge responsibility of ensuring that we don’t collapse these institutions of government. I’m happy that the meeting concluded its business because as a democrat, I would hate to see the meetings collapse because of chaos, and that’s why as leaders, we went to intervene to make sure that the people of Ekurhuleni will have a government.
“Congratulations to Alderman Tania Campbell. I’ve worked with her over the past five years and I do not doubt that she will do whatever that the party instructed her to do. We will do our bit in the opposition bench as the ANC to make sure that we hold that government to account.
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“The important thing is the stability of the government, and that’s what we are going to ensure when we are in the opposition bench.”
When asked if he was aggrieved, Masina said: “This is politics, how can I be aggrieved because I was not born with a vote on my mouth. I’m still intact, what happened today was democracy in action and I congratulate all the office-bearers who have been elected.”
In the November 1 local government elections in Ekurhuleni, the ANC gained 38.19% of the votes, followed by the DA with 28.72%, the EFF with13.47% and ActionSA received 6.6%.
Also Read: Elections 2021: The people have decided
