Politicians Squabble While Residents of Tshwane Suffer

30 October 2020

Today’s Council Meeting in Tshwane demonstrates all that is wrong with our political system, while politicians squabble and horse-trade, the residents of our capital city suffer.

Since 2016, the residents of Tshwane have not enjoyed stable and effective governance. The DA has had two Mayors, in the space of just 3 years, both of whom were mired in scandals and an inability to deliver service delivery effectively to residents. The intervention of the ANC Provincial Government, placing the City under administration, has been proven to be in breach of our laws and a political tactic. Under the provincial administrators, the City went from bad to worse.

The election of the DA’s Randall Williams will not improve the lives of the people of Tshwane. The DA has demonstrated, for all Tshwane residents to see, that it does not have the depth of leadership to deliver change. After all, the residents of Tshwane should be left concerned by of leadership of a Mayor who was the DA’s third choice behind the prolific failures of Solly Msimanga and Stevens Mokgalapa.

The reality is that the mess in Tshwane, and the suffering of the people of this city, is a product of political squabbling and horse-trading for over 4 years. The DA, ANC and EFF have all been responsible for the instability of this vital municipality and the crippling of its service delivery.

While the DA celebrates this election, the ANC previously celebrated the City under administration and the EFF celebrates its holding of Council meetings to ransom, the people of Tshwane suffer. The water problems in Hammanskraal remain unresolved four years later, the streets and traffic lights have fallen to dysfunction, the Mamelodi flood victims are still pleading for help, and the cosmetic building of RDP houses from the sale of the Mayoral Mansion are still not complete.

It is very clear that political parties, like those in Tshwane, put their own political self-interest ahead of the residents they are meant to serve. This is why our political system needs a new approach.

In Johannesburg, it was DA Councillors who gave the ANC’s Geoff Makhubo the majority to be elected as the Mayor. It was also DA Councillors who gave Makhubo a majority for his budget tabled in July this year. It is increasingly becoming difficult to see the actions of South Africa’s 3 biggest parties, within the context of what the residents of our cities want and need.

ActionSA offers itself to the people of Tshwane and Johannesburg as a political party that would put them first, ahead of political self-interest. It is time for the people of our capital city to punish the political parties that have played political games with their municipality.

Issued by Lerato M-Ngobeni, National Spokesperson of ActionSA, 30 October 2020