Motion to oust Tshwane mayor put on hold – for now

A motion of no confidence against Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink was temporarily withdrawn by opposition parties yesterday.

ANC regional secretary George Matjila confirmed that the party’s motion would be backed by ActionSA, the African Christian Democratic Party and the EFF, but would be temporarily withdrawn due to the DA’s court challenge.

ANC says Tshwane mayor will go

“The position is very clear in terms of how are we going to move forward in unison, but we are respecting the legal issues that are pending.

“Within two weeks, we think we will be able to come back and conclude the business,” he said.

ActionSA Tshwane caucus spokesperson councillor Tshepiso Modiba said the motion was withdrawn so that the party can conclude its review process to end their marriage with the DA.

Brink said on social media he was disappointed to learn about ActionSA’s withdrawal from the coalition and regarded it as a betrayal of the alliance and the residents of Tshwane.

He added: “A coalition that is making progress brought down for no clear reason.

“A betrayal of coalition partners and the people of Tshwane. Sabotaging the builders to let in the breakers.”

ALSO READ: Mashaba says ActionSA is done with Brink, DA in Tshwane

FF Plus says ActionSA’s ‘progress’ was nonsense

FF Plus Tshwane caucus leader Grandi Theunissen said the progress ActionSA has been boasting about was nonsense.

Theunissen said most of those claims, especially about progress in safety, were untrue.

A municipal worker who has been working for the city for over two decades agreed to speak anonymously and said the city would be better off without Brink.

“Whoever will take over from him will be an upgrade. Where the residents will lose is if the ANC rules again.

“If Brink is replaced by someone in the coalition, especially from the FF Plus, the city would be much better off,” he said.

The worker said the DA wasn’t the type of party that would find a compromise that could help everybody.

ALSO READ: ‘There’s no divorce papers’: Mayor Brink’s plea to save Tshwane coalition

More complaints against coalition

More people have come forward with complaints against the Brink-led coalition, including councillor of the Republican Conference of Tshwane Lex Middelberg, who said the DA had nothing to brag about.

Middelberg said Tshwane was the metro with the highest irregular spending in the country and this was all under a DA government.

“After the reduction of 21%, it is still at R1.75 billion in irregular spending.

“It is the metro with the highest irregular spending in the country also under the DA.

“This year the city failed to spend R6 billions of our budget. That is R6 billion in services not received by residents,” he said.