Brink to work with whoever ‘loves this city more than they hate their political opponents’

Facing a possible motion of no confidence next week, Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink is standing his ground.

ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba seems ready to dump his former moonshot partners and form a restructured municipal leadership without the Democratic Alliance (DA).

In a briefing held on Thursday, Brink outlined the metro’s successes and stated his commitment to “building a capital city that works”.

Economic growth paramount

Listing the financial reforms implemented in his 18 months in charge, Brink painted the picture of a municipality on the up.

Among the major successes he highlighted included the city’s debt collection efforts which had collected R1 billion more in the past two months than in the same period last year.

Additionally, Tshwane received a favourable review from rating agency Moody’s which improved the entity’s outlook from negative to stable.

“The big test for our future is whether we can get the economy growing, then meet the increased energy demands of that economic growth,” stated Brink during the briefing.

“If infrastructure is falling apart, if finances are collapsing, if people lose faith in our cities, we won’t achieve the productivity and confidence needed to reignite our economy,” stated Brink.

A better alternative?

Masahba’s ActionSA has the number of seats needed to return the current opposition to positions of municipal power.

Mashaba had earlier in the week stated his belief that Tshwane was being mismanaged and that “a better alternative to current abuses of trust” was being formulated by his party.

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Brink’s fired back, calling Mashaba’s stance “political incompetence”, with the mayor adding that he was committed to honouring his oath of office despite “political games”.

“I intended to take hands with partners and anyone else who loves this city more than they hate their political opponents to say, ‘How can we preserve the progress we have made?’ ,” said Brink

“How can we prevent the worst from happening and how can we improve the lived circumstances of the City of Tshwane, not just now but in the decades to come,” he concluded.

Brink and Mashaba have spent several weeks attacking each other publicly and on social media with claims of incompetence.

An expected motion of confidence will be held at a sitting of the Tshwane council on 26 September.