EFF walks out of council meeting as City of Tshwane gets new deputy mayor

ActionSA‘s Nasiphi Moya was elected unopposed as the City of Tshwane’s first ever deputy mayor in a special council meeting on Thursday.

Moya was selected as a candidate by ActionSA, with the backing of the Democratic Alliance (DA) and their coalition partners, for the position this week.

She was officially sworn in as a proportional representational (PR) councillor in the City of Tshwane ahead of Thursday’s sitting.

The creation of the deputy mayor position was met with opposition by the African National Congress (ANC), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Patriotic Alliance (PA), and other political parties.

The city passed a resolution on the matter during a council meeting on 9 November last year.

The proposal was then approved by the Gauteng MEC for local government.

Not an additional position

Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink defends the establishment of the position, which was agreed upon when the multi-party coalition agreement was signed in 2021.

“The point is that this position has been created because of the reality of coalitions. The deputy mayor stabilises the coalition process if it happens to the executive mayor. If I have to vacate office, [then] a deputy mayor assists with continuity. There’s also specific things in our agreement that the deputy mayor would be responsible for,” he told reporters on Thursday.

Brink said Moya, who has a PhD in political science, would be a part of the mayoral committee (Mayco), thus taking over a portfolio.

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This will reduce the number of MMCs to nine.

“It’s not just creating an additional position without existing responsibilities. One of the ActionSA MMCs has vacated a seat on the Mayco, and I intend to appoint the deputy mayor in that position,” the Tshwane mayor explained.

He further highlighted that the deputy mayor would be responsible for overseeing capital projects.

“The reality is that many municipalities have deputy mayors but, Gauteng has been the exception to that and I believe that, it is an opportunity for us to stabilise [the city]. We want to ensure services [are delivered],” Brink added.

EFF abandons council sitting

The EFF had walked out of the council proceedings in protest of Moya’s election.

EFF Tshwane chairperson Obakeng Ramabodu raised a point of order during the sitting, alleging that Moya contravened the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) for her trip to Saudi Arabia when she served as the city’s chief of staff.

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The trip allegedly cost the metropolitan municipality R165 000.

“She further paid herself pocket money of R10 000. We just want to know if she paid the city back that pocket money, and if not, she’s not fit to be [deputy mayor],” Ramabodu said.

Council speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana referred the allegations to the city manager’s office for investigation.

‘Baseless claims’

ActionSA has rejected EFF’s “baseless claims”, with the party accusing the Red Berets of attempting to tarnish Moya’s reputation.

The party said the EFF has “deliberately mischaracterised the financial implications” for the city in its “seemingly desperate attempt”.

“These issues, which they have raised now, should have been raised at the time with the then-executive mayor, who issued the instructions for the trip to Saudi Arabia.

“The EFF’s desperate move to only raise this issue after all these years smacks of political grandstanding, considering that at the time of this allegation, the EFF was in a cooperative arrangement with the government at the time.

“It must be noted that Dr. Moya neither went on the trip with the delegation to Saudi Arabia nor issued instructions to that effect. It is unsurprising that the EFF raises these unfounded claims now to score cheap political points,” ActionSA Gauteng chairperson Funzi Ngobeni said in a statement.

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