Political parties in the City of Tshwane have called on newly elected Mayor Cilliers Brink to focus on stabilizing 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.
Also read: Cilliers Brink DA elected mayor of City of Tshwane
He defeated Congress of the People (Cope) member Ofenste Moalusi to become the first resident of the town.
Brink won with 109 votes and Moalusi 102, with two abstentions after hours and two previous unsuccessful attempts to elect the mayor.
Tshwane finance
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which supported Moalusi for the mayoral position alongside the African National Congress (ANC), urged Brink to focus on stabilizing the municipality’s finances and restoring service delivery to the community.
“We believe in democracy and that is why after Brink was elected, we never left [of council] like them [the DA] when our speaker is elected.
“I hope the mayor can focus on stabilizing the city’s finances. By the way, this is the city’s finances as a result of the past leadership [former DA mayors] Randall Williams, Solly Msimanga and Stevens Mokgalapa,” said EFF leader Tshwane Obakeng Ramabodu.
DA provincial leader Solly Msimanga says sanity is happy to win in Tshwane.
“I have spoken to Brink and the team that they must bring services to the public.
“We are glad the city now has a political leader and we can now continue with the service delivery project,” he said.
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Msimanga added that councilors should stop internal political battles and start delivering to the people of the city.
“This is what the people are asking for. They don’t want this up-and-down politics, they want stability, they want delivery,” he said.
“I want to make a request to the ANC and the EFF. Let’s get rid of the political games. The people of Tshwane want a government that will be stable. Stay accountable, and let’s do the job without sabotage and without you making this house [council] as a chaotic house.”
Confidence in multiparty government
ActionSA Gauteng provincial leader Funzi Ngobeni echoed similar sentiments.
“It has been a roller coaster over the last few weeks and the people of Tshwane have certainly lost faith in us as a multiparty government, but now they will know that we will restore stability to the city.
“There is still a lot of work to be done because you know we still have speakers that for us are not authorized and we have to do that as an agency matter,” he said.
Ngobeni said it is important for Brink to realize that service delivery must be a priority.
“We have to hurry up and make up for lost time and that’s what we’ll expect from them,” he said.
“We are quite excited and the people of Tshwane are also excited that the majority they elected has been returned.”
The democratic process
ANC regional chairman George Matjila said the DA-led coalition would win and it would go back to the drawing board. He said he supported Brink’s election because it was a democratic process.
“This is not a war, it is not a battlefield and we are not fighting to kill each other, it is a democracy,” he said.
Matjila said she was only hoping for the best because the DA was projecting the worst.
“We will give them a chance to see what they do, but the DA is destroying Ekurhuleni, Joburg and everywhere else, they are bad,” he said. “
So we expect nothing better from the DA, but maybe Brink as an individual can bring something and we have a responsibility to give him that opportunity,” he said.
“We cannot interfere. As long as they are willing to work with the poorest people, who we represent, we are willing to work with them.
Additional report by Flame Prayer
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