Battle-weary Cilliers Brink has now finally gone as Mayor of the City of Tshwane.
Brink was removed on Thursday afternoon from his position in a motion of no confidence whereby 120 Councillors in the municipal chambers of the City of Tshwane voted for his removal.
80 of the Councillors voted for Brink but that was not enough to save him from the guillotine that the ANC has been trying to subject him to for some time now.
Earlier this year the ANC tried twice to remove Brink but on both occasions it failed.
On the first occasion the motion failed because the ANC simply didn’t have enough number of Councillors to execute the removal of Brink.
On the second occasion the motion failed because proper procedure had not been followed when it was brought to Council and Brink obtained a court interdict to stop the ANC and its voting mates like EFF, Patriotic Alliance and ActionSA from ejectung him from power.
Today was the proverbial third time lucky for the said voting partners to remove Brink, and only the IFP and ACDP voted for DA’s Brink.
The situation was chaotic outside the chambers early this morning ( Thursday) with supporters backing Brink and those calling for the motion to be passed protesting angrily in song dance and openly spoiling for a physical fight against one another.
In his speech to his supporters before the start of the Council meeting, Brink thanked activists, church leaders, community leaders and parties like his own DA, ACDP, Freedom Front Plus and IFP for supporting him since the threat of a motion of no confidence in him became a reality earlier this year.
“Our colours maybe blue as the DA, but what we have done in Tshwane we did it in partnership with the IFP, ACDP and Freedom Front Plus” said Brink.
“When our opponents say we are arrogant; that we are in this coalition for ourselves, our response is that their accusations are not true in Tshwane because we have stood in humble service to the people,” emphasised Brink.
Before the motion could be passed, the EFF’s Obakeng Ramabodu pointed out that some Councillors who are supporters of Brink had the intention to collapse the Council so that the motion of no confidence would not be tabled.
“They are power hungry, they are disgusting yet all along we were made to believe that white people are not power hugry,” he said.
“When they elected their five incompetent mayors consecutively since 2016 we never disturbed them,” said Ramabodu.
ANC Tshwane leader Bones Modise said since 2016 they as the ANC have been watching patiently as black people were being subjected to squalor by what he called the racist DA-led Coalition Government in Tshwane.
“Brink’s removal is inevitable,” said Modise confidently.
Patriotic Alliance Councillor Debyre Williams-Moses told the Council that her party took a principled stance to support the motion of no confidence in Brink for the benefit of the residents of Tshwane.
“This motion as bright about by EFF, ANC and ActionSA is not about the supposed negative state of Tshwane’s finances but it is all about gaining access to Tshwane’s finances for corruption purposes,” said DA spokesperson Kwena Moloto.
Speaking in support of the motion of no confidence and reasons why his party ActionSA supported it, the party’s Tshwane Regional leader Jacky Mathabathe said the following:
“Under the leadership of Executive Mayor Cilliers Brink we have witnessed alarming levels of disrespect and dishonesty that have left our community in turmoil as the DA has prioritised serving affluent suburbs while systematically neglecting our townships.”
“The blatant discrimination is not only unethical but it violates the very principles on which democratic South Africa was founded, and ActionSA will not sit and watch,” said Mathabathe.
“We are here to send a clear message to the DA that the time for polite politics is over, we are here to fight for what is right for our residents,” he said.