Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink has been toppled from his office as the metro’s political head through the ANC-sponsored motion of no confidence against him during an ordinary council sitting at Tshwane House on Thursday.
Brink’s axing came after the motion was successfully passed through 120 votes, supported by the ANC, ActionSA and the EFF.
At least 87 councillors from the coalition partners, which include the DA, FF Plus and ACDP, voted in favour of the mayor to stay in power while. Sole Inkatha Freedom Party councillor Ziyanda Zwane abstained.
The tabling of motion followed weeks of political spats between ActionSA and the DA with the former lamenting the poor state of service delivery in townships under Brink leadership.
ActionSA caucus leader, Jackie Mathabathe, on Thursday reiterated that the city under Brink’s leadership had neglected townships when it came to delivery of services.
With Brink at the helm, he said, the city had experienced “alarming levels of disrespect and dishonesty that has left our communities in turmoil”.
He accused the DA of prioritising the affluent suburbs while it systematically neglected the townships.
“The blatant discrimination is not only unethical but violates the principles of democracy on which South Africa was founded,” Mathabathe said.
He said his party rejected toxic politics of exclusion and demanded leadership that would represent all Tshwane communities.
Former MMC for human settlements, Ofentse Madzebatela, hit back by saying that Mathabathe could not solely blame Brink for failing to deliver services in the townships.
He said if the mayor failed, it meant the deputy mayor Nasiphi Moya, who hails from ActionSA, also failed.
He said the incoming political administration of ActionSA, ANC and EFF was not about “rescuing the city but looting the city’s finances”.
“I want to remind the people of Hammanskraal that water is coming your way, because of this executive mayor,” he said.
EFF leader in Tshwane, Obakeng Ramabodu, bemoaned that the city infrastructure was at the brink of collapse, saying his party supported the removal of the minority government in Tshwane.
“We say this because the larger population of Tshwane comprises of black constituency that was poorly serviced by the minority representatives,” he said.
He accused Brink of having diverted service delivery to suburbs at the expense of the townships.
He said the townships remained undeveloped with no service delivery and had become crime hotspots.
FF Plus councillor Grandi Theunissen expressed concern about the possibility of getting rid of senior managers hired under the DA-led coalition government.
“This is probably one of the worst things that can happen to the government,” he said.
He said the multi-party coalition was never about the party, but about the people of Tshwane.
He lashed out at the ActionSA for being untrustworthy towards the coalition partners, adding that the ANC was “totally opportunistic”.
DA leader in Gauteng, Solly Msimanga, said “will go down in history as the day that an outright backstabber sank a functional government, and in doing so traded stability for chaos”.
This was in reference to ActionSA, which he said disrupted the course of progress and unity that the Tshwane multiparty coalition government worked tirelessly to build.
“ActionSA’s backstabbing played right into the hands of the ANC’s power hunger. The ANC has no interest in good governance in Tshwane but wants to pillage and steal from a stabilised government. This will no doubt destabilise Tshwane and ActionSA is duly complicit in this power grab,”he said.
Msimanga said the DA caucus would proudly take up seats as the official opposition in council.
“In the face of adversity and instability we will hold a broken executive to account. We have, and always will be, unforgiving in our oversight roles – the DA will continue to protect the people of Tshwane,” he said.
The ANC cited a whopping R6 billion debt owed by the municipality to Eskom and Rand Water’s outstanding interest of R15 530 163 for the financial year 2022/23 among reasons for removing Brink.
Council Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana was expected to convene another council sitting soon to elect a new mayor.
The removal is unlikely to have any bearing on the Government of National Unity given that the local government “is a very complex environment” as compared to both national and provincial spheres of governments.
This was according to political analyst and public administration lecturer at the University of Mpumalanga, Dr John Molepo, who predicted that parties that removed Brink were likely to jostle for power, forcing the metro to find itself in the same situation that played out in council on Thursday.
“Local government is a very complex environment compared to the provincial and national governments,” he said.
While Molepo believed the move to oust Brink was a win for the ANC because of its majority council seats, he said: “I am not sure if the ActionSA is likely to give support to the ANC.”
He said what was critically important was how the new political arrangement will impact on delivery of services.
“There is no stability now in Tshwane and that is why professionalisation of local government is important,” he said.
He suggested that until such time that South Africans embrace coalition politics, particularly by coming up with a framework, changing of mayors will continue to be a norm.
Pretoria News