Parties call on new Tshwane mayor to focus on stabilising city finances, service delivery

Political parties in the City of Tshwane have called on the newly elected Mayor Cilliers Brink to focus on stabilising the metro’s finances and service delivery.

City of Tshwane

Brink, a Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor, was elected the Capital City’s executive mayor on Tuesday, during a special council meeting at Tshwane House.

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He beat Congress of the People (Cope) councillor Ofenste Moalusi to become the city’s first citizen.

Brink won by 109 votes to Moalusi’s 102, with two abstentions after long hours and two previous failed attempts to elect a mayor.

Tshwane finances

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which supported Moalusi for the mayoral position along with the African National Congress (ANC), urged Brink to focus on stabilising the municipality’s finances and restoring service delivery to communities.

“We believe in democracy and that’s why after Brink was elected, we never walked out [of council] like them [the DA] when our speaker was elected.

“We hope that the mayor will focus on stabilising the finances of the city. By the way, these finances of the city are as a result of their leadership through [former DA mayors] Randall Williams, Solly Msimanga and Stevens Mokgalapa,” said EFF Tshwane leader Obakeng Ramabodu.

DA provincial leader Solly Msimanga said they were happy sanity prevailed in Tshwane.

“I’ve said to Brink and the team that they need to bring services to the people.

“We are glad the city now has a political head and we can now get on with the job of service delivery,” he said.

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Msimanga added that councillors needed to stop internal political fighting and start delivering to the people of the city.

“That’s what the people are asking for. They don’t want this political up and down, they want stability, they want delivery,” he said.

“I want to make a plea to the ANC and EFF. Let’s put political games aside. The people of Tshwane are asking for a government that is going to be stable. Keep us accountable, and let us do our jobs without sabotaging and without you rendering this house [council] as a house of chaos.”

Confidence in multiparty government

ActionSA Gauteng provincial leader Funzi Ngobeni echoed similar sentiments.

“This has been a roller-coaster for the last few weeks and the people of Tshwane must have lost confidence in us as a multiparty government, but they will now realise we will restore stability back into the city.

“There is still a lot of work that needs to be done as you know we still have a speaker who for us is illegitimate and we need to do that as a matter of agency,” he said.

Ngobeni said it was important for Brink to realise service delivery must be a priority.

“We need to fast-track that and to recover on the lost time and that is what we will expect from him,” he said.

“We are quite excited and the people of Tshwane are also excited that the majority that they voted for has been restored.”

Democratic process

ANC regional chair George Matjila said the DA-led coalition win was expected and they would go back to the drawing board. He said they supported the election of Brink because it was a democratic process.

“It’s not war, it’s not a battlefield and we are not fighting to kill each other, it’s a democracy,” he said.

Matjila said they just hoped for the best as the DA represented the worst.

“We will give him a chance to see what he does but the DA damaged Ekurhuleni, Joburg and everywhere they are, they are very bad,” he said. “

So we expect nothing better of the DA but maybe Brink as an individual can bring something and we have the responsibility to give him that chance,” he said.

“We can’t be disruptive. As long as he is willing to work with poorest of the poor, which we represent, we are willing to work with him.”

Additional reporting by Thapelo Lekabe

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