The DA will field former Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink to contest for a mayoral position in less than two weeks amid uncertainty over who will lead the incoming metro's government of local unity to be formed by the ANC, ActionSA and EFF.
This comes after Brink was dethroned from office through a motion of no confidence sponsored by the ANC during Thursday's ordinary council sitting.
While ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said his party would usher in former deputy mayor, Dr Nasiphi Moya, as the executive mayor, the ANC has quashed suggestions that a deal has been sealed in that regard.
Gauteng DA leader Solly Msimanga said the contradictory statements between the ANC and ActionSA proved Mashaba “was a useful idiot and has been duped to collapse a working government which included his own party”.
ActionSA dumped the multiparty coalition, which included the DA, Inkatha Freedom Party, Freedom Front Plus and the African Christian Democratic Party, citing poor service delivery in townships.
Msimanga said the DA would not abandon Tshwane residents and would field Brink as mayoral candidate to continue making progress in the municipality.
The DA made futile attempts to persuade the national ANC leadership to rein in the Gauteng ANC structure to withdraw the motion of no confidence against Brink.
Msimanga said the exercise would have enabled the future of the City to be deliberated under conditions of relative stability with the mayoral committee continuing to perform its work.
“Had the ANC acceded to this request, there would have been time and opportunity to devise a settlement in the best interest of the people of Tshwane and Gauteng,” he said.
He expressed concern over the constant changing of mayors “without regard to certainty and consistency in policy, and enhancing the capacity of municipal administrations”.
“It is irresponsible in the extreme to bring down a city government without having any plan of what to put in its place. The uncertainty and instability caused by these political games will have real implications for the City of Tshwane and its residents,” he added.
FF Plus councillor, Grandi Theunissen, labelled ActionSA as being traitorous and selfish, saying “its decision to turn its back on the coalition has destroyed everything that has been achieved so far”.
He said ActionSA did not have the decency to table its grievances in terms of the written coalition agreement.
“Going against the wishes of the majority of metro residents demonstrates the party's absolute self-centredness,” he said.
ActionSA Gauteng leader, Funzi Ngobeni, said in a recently commissioned market research conducted as part of his party’s review “only 36% of respondents felt that the city was moving in the right direction over the past 18 months with 54% believing the city had got worse and a further 10% indicating that no improvements had been experienced”.
“In suburban communities, 64% of respondents indicated an improvement in service delivery, while in townships this number was as low as 24%,” he said.
The ANC in Gauteng said Brink’s removal marked “the beginning of the re-strengthening of the City of Tshwane and the Gauteng province broadly”.
Pretoria News