A general view at the City of Tshwane council meeting on 24 November 2021, in Pretoria. Photo: Gallo Images/Beeld/Deaan Vivier
Tensions are running high with only a week before the new mayor of the City of Tshwane is announced.
Yesterday, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said the DA would never be back in power in Tshwane again.
“We are making progress with the ANC and a new mayor will be elected before the end of the 14 days.
“I had a very successful meeting with the ANC yesterday – the first official meeting to talk about the broad terms of our agreement,” he said.
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Mashaba said they have committed to a follow-up meeting in the next few days.
“The new mayor will be elected within the prescribed legal requirements.
“By next Thursday the City of Tshwane will have a new mayor and it won’t be [Cilliers] Brink,” he said.
EFF regional chair Obakeng Ramabodu called out the city manager Johann Mettler for reprimanding municipal workers after the motion of no confidence against Brink.
“The EFF reminds Mettler that his days are numbered and the power dynamics in Tshwane will shift in favour of the people. The EFF in Tshwane is coming for you,” he said.
Ramabodu accused Mettler of irregular, unauthorised fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
In a letter to the City of Tshwane employees, Mettler had warned that should there be a repeat of the behaviour witnessed last week he would have no choice but to implement consequence management.
Mettler said employees have a right to associate with a political party of their choice and express this right through voting in an election, however, the workplace is not a party political arena.
“Last Thursday shortly after council had concluded its business, former executive mayor Cilliers Brink was making his way to the parking lot when he was accosted by a throng of people, some of whom are employees, and subjected to unseemly conduct inside Tshwane House.
“He was jeered at by a visibly excited crowd and expletives were hurled in his face. I found this behaviour to be insensitive, humiliating.“
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DA Tshwane caucus spokesperson Kwena Moloto said the new “Doomsday pact” was targeting a non-political city manager so as to replace him with their own discredited cadres.
“When the ANC, EFF and ActionSA succeeded with their motion of no confidence against Brink, he was mobbed by various people outside the council chamber purporting to be municipal employees,” he said.
“It has since come to the DA’s attention that the majority of the mob were political support staffers in the ANC caucus office.
“All the same, these employees, paid with taxpayers’ money, remain subject to the discipline of the municipality and the code of conduct for municipal officials.
“Municipal employees are not meant to be drawn into political battles, let alone treat an elected office-bearer with open disdain.”
Moloto said the ANC and the EFF have now targeted Mettler because of his letter, and the fact that he dared to suggest that municipal employees must hold professional standards above party political loyalty.
“This is the first sign of things to come under this Doomsday pact which has set its eyes on governing Tshwane,” he said.
Moloto said the EFF had attacked Mettler for doing his job while Ramabodu, famous for making genocidal remarks against Afrikaners, has on occasions launched inappropriate attacks on Mettler and his team.
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