Tshepiso Modiba ActionSA Tshwane Caucus Spokesperson
By Cllr Tshepiso Modiba
ActionSA PR Councillor City of Tshwane
When the multi-party coalition government of the City of Tshwane elected Dr Nasiphi Moya as Executive Mayor in October 2024, it was a moment of collective resolve.
Parties across the spectrum – the ANC, EFF, ActionSA, ACDP, AIC, DOP, PA, PAC, ATM and GOOD put aside narrow interests to stabilise a city that had been brought to the brink by years of instability, financial collapse and lawlessness.
What followed was not rhetoric.
It was delivery.
Under Mayor Moya’s leadership, Tshwane has recorded tangible gains that the coalition
itself publicly celebrated.
In the first 100 days, coalition party leaders issued a joint statement commending progress: the repair of over 21,000 streetlights and 291 high-mast lights; the fixing of nearly all identified potholes; the clearing of hundreds of illegal dumping
sites; significant strides in the Hammanskraal water crisis with Phase 1 of the Magalies Klipdrift plant delivering clean water; improved cash reserves and liquidity; and the start of serious by-law enforcement operations that fined non-compliant businesses and inspected hundreds of spaza shops.
Later milestones have been equally clear.
Tshwane has passed fully funded budgets for
consecutive years.
Historic debt to Eskom has been reduced by more than a billion rand.
Over 220 kilometres of roads have been resurfaced.
More than 3,300 title deeds have been
handed over.
The debtors’ book has been reduced through focused recovery efforts.
Areas of audit non-compliance have dropped sharply.
Over R14 billion in unauthorised,irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure has been investigated.
The TMPD has begun meaningful recruitment after a decade of neglect.
And through the Reclaim Our City campaign, more than 400 by-law enforcement operations have been conducted restoring a measure of order that residents had been denied for years.
These were not ActionSA achievements alone.
They were coalition achievements.
In council chambers and in public statements, partners stood up and recognised Dr Moya as the elected Executive Mayor leading a collective effort.
They praised the restoration of financial discipline, the return of basic services, and the courage to enforce municipal by-
laws without selective blindness.
The joint 100-day statement was not forced; it was a voluntary acknowledgement that the city was finally moving in the right direction under her leadership.
Yet as the next local government elections draw nearer, a different spirit has emerged.
The same coalition partners who once celebrated these gains are now distancing themselves from the very work they endorsed.
Political calculation is replacing partnership.
What was once hailed as decisive leadership is suddenly painted as problematic particularly the consistent enforcement of by-laws.
Nowhere is this hypocrisy more glaring than in the posture of the ANC, the largest party in the coalition.
Sections of the ANC now criticise Dr Nasiphi Moya for enforcing by-laws firmly and without fear or favour.
Yet the same party’s Regional Chairperson, who also serves as Deputy Mayor and MMC for Finance, operates within the same administration that has driven these operations.
Bylaw enforcement is not a personal project of the Mayor it is a core function of the multi-party government the ANC chose to join and lead alongside others.
To praise the results when convenient and then attack the enforcement when electioneering begins is the height of political dishonesty.
Residents of Tshwane are not blind.
They see the cleaner streets, the repaired lights, the resurfaced roads, the improved financial position, and the visible effort to reclaim public spaces from lawlessness.
They also see politicians who once stood in council and endorsed this direction now retreating for electoral advantage.
The critical question facing every resident is simple and unavoidable:
Do you want to be governed by lawlessness by the selective blindness, illegal trading, illegal dumping, hijacked buildings and open disregard for municipal rules that characterised the years of
decline or by a leader who is prepared to enforce the law without fear or favour, even when it is politically uncomfortable?
Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya has chosen the latter path.
The multi-party coalition, at its best,
supported her in that choice.
Those who now seek to undermine that work for short-term electoral gain must answer to the residents they claim to serve.
History will record who stood for order and delivery when it mattered, and who chose hypocrisy when the campaign posters went up.
The people of Tshwane deserve better than fair weather partners.
They deserve leaders who mean what they say in council and on the campaign trail.
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