DA will fight to protect Tshwane residents against Doomsday Pact 

9 October 2024

The ANC has chosen to govern the Capital City of South Africa in coalition with the EFF and other parties opposed to the government of national unity (GNU)

This signifies a reunion between the ANC and its former radical economic transformation (RET) faction, and bodes ill for the financial rescue mission underway in the City of Tshwane.

To cover what is essentially a Doomsday Pact , the ANC and their chaotic Gauteng factions have installed a proxy mayor from a small party.

The proxy mayor model allows the ANC and the EFF to battle for resources while blaming their poor performance on a hapless third party.

ActionSA’s Mayor Nasiphi Moya will be in the office, but she will not be in power. Her strings will be pulled by the ANC’s Gauteng factions and the EFF.

This is not a commentary on her skills or qualifications. She was a capable deputy mayor in the Tshwane multi-party coalition which her party brought to a fall.

But ActionSA, which polls at 0,5% of national support according to the Social Research Foundation, will be the junior partner in the ANC/EFF coalition.

Having delivered Tshwane to the ANC and the EFF, ActionSA will become insignificant in the battle for resources that has also taken place in other cities where the parties govern together.

The ANC, for its part, must not think that it can hide behind its proxy mayor in the run-up to the 2026 local government election. The party, having made every attempt since 2016 to render Tshwane ungovernable, must now take responsibility for governing the city.

Since 2016 the party has disrupted council meetings, blocked disciplinary action against a municipal manager implicated in the GladAfrica matter, and joined forces with the EFF to prevent quorate council meetings from happening.

In 2020 this created the pretext for the ANC in Gauteng to place Tshwane under administration, leaving the City with a budget deficit of more than R4 billion, which the party proceeded to blame on the DA.

The ANC has also blamed the DA for the R4,5 billion in VAT, penalties and interests from the PEU smart meter contract pushed through by an ANC mayor and majority in 2012.

The DA will work with likeminded parties to prevent the ANC and the EFF from reversing the progress which we have made in the past 18 months. We will seek to ensure that:

The Hammanskraal water project, initiated by the Tshwane multi-party coalition in cooperation with national government, is not sabotaged by water tanker businesses;

Disciplinary action against the five officials implicated in an irregular contract to upgrade the Rooiwal Waste Water Treatment Plant, and the steps taken to blacklist the contractors, are not reversed; and

Non-political senior managers, appointed to change the cadre culture in the City of Tshwane, are not removed from their positions in order to install ANC and EFF party operatives in non-political positions.

We warn the ANC-EFF coalition not to deviate with the financial rescue plan we have implemented, and to dissent from any major expenditures which could cause a cashflow crisis in the City.

In 2026 the DA will seek a mandate strong enough to overcome the efforts of ANC RET factions and the EFF to sabotage effective government, one that can finish the job of building a Capital City that works for all its people.

Issued by Cilliers Brink, DA Tshwane Caucus Leader, 9 October 2024