DA to field ousted Campbell again for next week’s vote

The Democratic Alliance (DA) may have a fighting chance of regaining the mayorship in Ekurhuleni as the party plans to wheel ousted mayor Tania Campbell out again next week for the vote.

The DA’s Bronwynn Engelbrecht said the party did not intend to field any other candidate.

Coalition

Should the coalition win back the city and should the DA lead it, Engelbrecht said the party will reach out to other parties with compassion for the poor and will work with them. She included the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

She said: “Any suggestions to alleviate the dire circumstances of the poor will be high on our agenda.”

But the Patriotic Alliance’s (PA) Charles Cilliers said Campbell’s leadership was a flop. He suggested there was little to no service delivery improvement.

Motive behind the motion

Former DA member of parliament and Ekurhuleni resident Mike Waters said the ANC must have tabled the motion to get rid of Campbell quickly because she had ordered forensic lifestyle audits on every councillor.

He said: “After 20 years of ANC tentacles in Ekurhuleni, two decades of corruption, cadre deployment and maladministration, a forensic audit would be the last thing the ANC would want.”

Waters said Campbell was ousted prematurely and undoing more than two decades of decay and corruption in Ekurhuleni cannot happen overnight.

“There is so much to undo and so much to repair.” He believed Campbell must be voted back in to “clean up the rest of the mess the ANC left behind”.

Political party views

ActionSA’s Bongani Baloyi, leader of the party’s Ekurhuleni’s caucus, said: “Over the past few weeks, when it was known this motion of no confidence was looming, there was no concerted effort to reach out to parties to defeat this motion.

“Political insults have been traded in the place of what should have been a pragmatic approach to building majorities.”

The EFF said Campbell had not reached out to them at all.

Cilliers said the PA was willing to work with any party that walks its talk.

But he said: “The DA should stop trading on a ‘we are not the ANC’ ticket and if they want to govern, they must show they are capable.”

– news@citizen.co.za

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