Tshwane on a knife edge in ward poll

Tshwane is in a much better state now than it has been in a long time and that’s why voting for the opposition would not only be bad news for ward 92 residents but the whole city, DA leader John Steenhuisen says.

The DA coalition currently has a majority of two seats in council.

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Steenhuisen and City of Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink addressed business leaders this week to garner support for ward 92 councillor candidate Shimmy Mashamaite in the upcoming ward election at the end of the month.

“The next few weeks are so significant for Tshwane municipality. They have made a lot of progress and advancement,” he said.

Tshwane ward elections crucial

Steenhuisen said the ward elections were now more important.

“The forces of the breakers operating at a national level are not still and silent on a local level.

“In recent weeks rumours have swirled about Tshwane and the activities to remove an excellent mayor.

“They want to remove him not because he has done a bad job, but because he cleaning up Tshwane and it presents a clear and present danger to the networks they support and maintain,” he said.

Brink said Mashamaite was the perfect candidate for ward 92. He described it as an interesting ward with changing demographics.

The ward houses many students, suburban areas and Loftus Versfeld stadium. Brink said ward elections were important for the city because the DA coalition currently has a majority of two seats in council.

“If we don’t win this ward election we will be left with a majority of one. That’s why this by-election is so important, because it’s on a knife edge,” he said.

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‘Working on service delivery’

Brink said service delivery in the city wasn’t perfect but they were working on it.

“Between 2016 and 2021 no single party had an outright majority in the city. Worse than that, no single coalition formation had an absolute majority.”

Brink said in the past 17 months, the city has been able to form a stable government that was steadily improving the situation in the city.

“A ward councillor has one of the toughest jobs in politics because they don’t keep office hours and there are many complaints and frustrations from the community,” he added.

Over the weekend there were rumours that official leader of the opposition in Gauteng Solly Msimanga had denied claims that the DA requested help from the ANC to keep control of the City of Tshwane after the successful appointment of the ANC’s Dada Morero as mayor of Johannesburg last week.

Msimanga has not responded to attempts to get further comment.

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Stable government in their interest

Political analyst Dr Benjamin Rapanyane said it would be an excellent strategic move to end the issues of unaccountability in the province.

“If the DA-ANC plan to end the unnecessary motions of no confidence succeeds, it would work in the best interest of the municipalities in Gauteng to have stable governments that will account for service delivery issues,” he said.

Political analyst Piet Croucamp said the ANC could do with more stability in coalitions on a provincial level.

“There is a lot of pressure from Luthuli House and the Union Buildings on the provincial government and Lesufi to do the right thing and to assemble stable coalitions.

“Much of the pressure to enter into agreements with the DA is with a view to permanence, not expediency, as an extension of the government of national unity,” he said.

Croucamp said the ANC has said in the past that unstable local government coalitions were one of the reasons they have lost support.