New Tshwane mayor to engage with opposition parties to ensure council functions

Newly elected Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams said he would co-operate and engage with opposition parties to ensure the council and by extension, the City of Tshwane, functions optimally.

Williams, the DA candidate, was elected as the City’s mayor during a special council meeting last week that was not met with any disruptions.

It was the first meeting since the City was placed under administration and the council dissolved by the Gauteng provincial government about eight months ago.

Tshwane council’s recent history

The dissolution of the council, announced in March, was in part, borne out of its inability to deal with any business on the agenda.

This included the election of a new mayor after the DA’s Stevens Mokgalapa stepped down amid an alleged sex scandal.

Political battles between the DA, EFF and ANC were played out in several council meetings, which often led to the collapse of meetings as opposition parties staged walkouts.

Other meetings did not quorate as opposition parties did not attend.

Official reasons given by the province included:

• A flagrant disregard for the Municipal Finance Management Act regarding procurement processes which eroded good governance
• Unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure flagged by the Auditor-General
• A failure to spend conditional grants
• The irregular appointment of senior managers
• A failure to elect ward committees
• A failure to collect refuse as well as severely compromised drinking water.

The DA challenged the decision in the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, arguing Gauteng Premier David Makhura and his exco had dissolved the council for political reasons. In April, the court ruled in the DA’s favour and found the decision to dissolve the council unlawful.

The judgment was appealed and has since been argued in the Constitutional Court. Judgment has been reserved.

In the meantime, the DA launched another application with the High Court to enforce an order pending the appeal processes, which was granted.

This was also appealed, but the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed the provincial government’s appeal to stall the enforcement of the judgment, which ultimately led to the special council meeting that saw Williams’ election.

The way forward

Given the tempestuous recent history between the DA, ANC and EFF in the council, Williams said as a minority government, there needed to be good relations with opposition parties as well as co-operation for this council to function.

He said the issue of co-operation in minority governments was not unique to Tshwane and the City of Johannesburg had been grappling with the same set-up.

“In the City of Johannesburg, you have an ANC minority government and to govern the City they need the co-operation of the DA.

“For a number of months, the DA has been co-operating with the ANC to make council work and I can’t see why that can’t happen in Tshwane where the roles are reversed. So, I look forward to co-operating with the other parties.”

Williams added the party would be engaging with opposition parties on a regular basis to keep everyone on board.

Using last week’s special council meeting as a barometer, he said it was a civil meeting and believed the council would continue in that fashion going forward.

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