ANC statement on re-igniting service delivery and inclusive development and growth in the City of Tshwane

8 October 2024

On Monday 07th October 2024, the National Working Committee of the African National Congress gave a final go-ahead to the team led by the Secretary General to conclude negotiations on the election of a new Mayor of the City of Tshwane. The election of the Executive Mayor will take place today, Wednesday 9 October 2024.

This process follows a successful motion of no-confidence against the then Mayor, Celliers Brink. The motion of no-confidence was brought by the ANC with the support of seven other parties on the basis of high levels of dissatisfaction with the state of the City.

Since the DA took over Tshwane in 2016, the Capital City has experienced a dramatic and sustained deterioration with regard to governance and service delivery to communities. Eight years of DA-led coalitions and five Mayors have achieved nothing other than driving the Capital City to the brink of administrative collapse. The City ofTshwane is a shadow of its former self. Across the Capital City, service delivery has ground to a standstill. The people in the townships are left to fend for themselves as if there no local government.

In the spirit of the Government of National Unity, the ANC initiated engagements with all parties represented in the City of Tshwane on how we can collaborate to create political and administrative stability and focus on re-igniting service delivery and inclusive socioeconomic development in the Capital City.

The ANC National Working Committee emphasised that, as the largest party in the metro, the ANC bears the greatest responsibility to bring together all parties that are both willing and able to contribute to restoring Tshwane into a clean, functioning and thriving Capital City that works for all residents and businesses, including providing efficient services to the many foreign diplomatic missions, national government departments and universities located in Tshwane.

The National Working Committee is deeply concerned about the financial position of the City and further directed that national and provincial government should take the necessary steps to work with the leadership of the City to stabilise finances and address pressing service delivery issues and stimulate the local economy. A financial and service delivery recovery plan should be adopted within four weeks.

The ANC has extensively discussed the calibre of the team that should be drawn from different parties to take the Capital City on a new path of financial recovery and inclusive service delivery that leaves no community behind. There should be no doubt that the ANC would have wanted to provide a candidate for the Mayor, as the largest party. We made it clear to all parties, as we did during the setting of the Government of National Unity, we will not allow any party to make unreasonable demands or dictate terms on the matter of setting up of the new coalition government in the Capital City.

The ANC has tried to bring on board all the parties to co-operate in forming a functional viable and inclusive government of local unity in Tshwane. But a "Brink-or-nothing" approach will never work.

Most parties expressed willingness to be flexible in negotiations and move beyond narrow party-political interests. Action SA leadership painstakingly explained to the ANC that their proposal was not a "Nasiphi Moya-or-nothing". After extensive engagement on the calibre of the candidate and the tight timeframes we have to sort out the problems, the ANC agreed to support the candidature of the current Acting Mayor, Cllr Dr Nasiphi Moya. This is based on the strength of her experience and qualifications. We appeal to the people of Tshwane to support Cllr Dr Nasiphi Moya and the new leadership team that is putting the Capital City on a new path of better governance, service delivery and inclusive growth.

As the largest party in the Council, the ANC remains the Leader of the multi-party coalition government that will be established in Tshwane over the next few days.

Once the Mayor is elected and the new Mayoral Committee is appointed, work will immediately begin with the Executive Mayor, in expediting service delivery and turning the fortunes of the City around, which includes improving governance.

Issued by Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri, National Spokesperson, ANC, 9 October 2024