Watch: ActionSA’s Nasiphi Moya elected Tshwane mayor

A multiparty coalition of the ANC, EFF, and ActionSA, with the latter’s Dr Nasiphi Moya as mayor, will be ruling Tshwane council affairs.

Moya today contested the position against former mayor Cilliers Brink of the DA.

She was appointed mayor after a council meeting where Eugene Modise of the ANC proposed her for the role, while Jacqui Uys of the DA nominated Brink.

The results: Moya 122, Brink 86.

The election was overseen by the IEC and observers from all parties. The IEC confirmed the results.

Mayor’s promise

Moya was sworn in by acting Chief Magistrate V Mahlangu after her election. In her first speech as mayor, she urged setting political differences aside.

“I will be a mayor for all groups. My promise is to fix the roads, keep the lights on, and provide clean water for our residents,” Moya said.

She added that a mayoral committee would soon be appointed, and her tenure would focus on financial discipline and anti-corruption.

The ANC stated at a media briefing that its National Working Committee had given the final go-ahead for the election negotiations, led by the secretary-general.

ANC regional secretary George Matjila, Moya of ActionSA, and ANC Tshwane chairperson Eugene Modise attended the briefing.

ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said that since the DA took control in 2016, Tshwane has suffered significant governance and service delivery issues.

“Eight years of DA-led coalitions and five mayors have achieved nothing other than driving the capital city to the brink of administrative collapse. The City of Tshwane is a shadow of its former self. Across the capital city, service delivery has ground to a standstill. The people in the townships are left to fend for themselves as if there’s no local government,” said Bhengu-Motsiri.

She emphasised that the ANC, as the metro’s largest party, bore the responsibility to restore Tshwane to ‘a clean, functioning and thriving capital city that works for all residents and businesses’.

ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont said he is pleased by the support for Moya’s nomination and election as mayor.

“She is the best-suited person to fix our broken capital city. She has a wealth of experience, a track record of ethical leadership and is highly qualified to lead the city. The focus from this point onward must shift to service delivery and stability and the measure of the mayor must be whether residents experience better government across all communities going forward,” said Beaumont.

Coalition talks and concerns

The DA will now be the official opposition in the council.

DA spokesperson Kwena Moloto said that it is very telling that the ANC’s Panyaza Lesufi and ActionSA’s Herman Mashaba acknowledged at the ANC press briefing that discussions between their parties had been going on for two months.

“I think it was thus disproved today that the DA first approached the ANC on the issue of a nominated mayor and a coalition in Tshwane,” said Moloto.

“I’m not gonna attack Dr Moya as I believe that she did a good job as a deputy mayor inside the government by the multiparty government. But we’ve seen this system before where the ANC and the EFF choose a mayor from a small party so that they can run rampant inside the municipality but not face the consequences.”

He said he believes she might be capable but has been put in a position ‘where she’s going to be a proxy mayor’.

Grandi Theunissen of the Freedom Front Plus raised concerns over Moya’s integrity, alleging that she delayed repaying travel-related costs owed to the metro when she was an official.

“She only paid this amount back at the beginning of this year when she was appointed deputy mayor,” said Theunissen, adding that to him this was an admission of guilt.

“I believe this has been paid recently, but to me, it still places a question mark around the integrity… about the positions being filled by Moya.”

Video here: