With his political rivals ready to cock champagne to celebrate his foregone departure from the position of City of Tshwane mayor, incumbent mayor Cilliers Brink will live another day as mayor.
This after he successfully interdicted opposition parties in the City of Tshwane who were baying for his blood in the form of a motion of no confidence.
It is also reported that new bodyguards had also been hired to come and remove him from his position in the vent that he would refuse to vacate his mayoral position.
DA Tshwane caucus spokesperson Kwena Moloto said as the DA they were caught off guard and surprised by the announcement by ActionSA that they will be withdrawing from the governing coalition. in the City of Tshwane.
“We still haven’t received any formal communication from them in this regard but given the fact that it is now is now in the media space we assume that to be true,” he said.
“We see this withdrawal as a betrayal not so much of the DA but the betrayal of the residents of Tshwane because just last month ActionSA caucus leader was speaking about how stable the government in Tshwane is, how service delivery is on the up, how rooting out corruption was on the offensive but a month later he does a complete U-turn, and this is a complete lack of integrity and shows that this is not about service delivery and or about residents, but that it is about political power,” said a disgusted Moloto.
“I think this is also an indication of pettiness at national level by the ActionSA leadership which is looking at settling political squabbles and the residents of Tshwane could intentionally suffer the results of Action SA’s withdrawal from the coalition government in Tshwane,” he said.
Moloto revealed that the opposition parties are now saying they will bring a proper motion of no confidence in two weeks’ time after Brink successfully obtained a court order to stop them from carrying out their senseless intentions.
“We are more than willing to face this motion and will engage with political parties and obviously going forward to see what the lay of the land is after the motion of no confidence, but during those engagements we are not gonna hold on to power for power’s sake as we believe that we are on a mission to rescue the City of Tshwane, are of the opinion that the rescue mission has been successful so far, but if we need to fight for the residents of Tshwane from the opposition benches, then we will do so,” said a disappointed Matjila.
ActionSA Tshwane caucus spokesperson Tshepiso Modiba said the following:
“We withdraw the motion because as you might be aware ActionSA is currently reviewing the process of our marriage with the DA and that review is still continuing, so we have said to our new partners ANC that they need to give us time to conclude our preview process, and we shall then reach a conclusion on the matter of removing Cilliers Brink from office.”
“Brink was not elected by any court or any lawyer so the motion will eventually pass because us as ActionSA, ANC, EFF, ACDP, we have that absolute majority to remove Brink and install a stable government in the city of Tshwane,” said Modiba.
“Our message is very clear and as ActionSA we are a party that will be working for the people and if Brink gest removed nothing changes and our deputy mayor was elected by council so in terms of service delivery we will still continue in the city of Tshwane cause she is a capable and capacitated woman who can get the job done and service delivery will not be compromise in the city of Tshwane and if Brinks goes out, she as the deputy will continue her duties because she was elected by council and not appointed by Cilliers Brink,” explained Modiba.
Commenting on the withdrawal of the vote of no confidence in Brink at a media conference on Thursday in Tshwane, ANC Regional Secretary George Matjila said all parties supporting the motion of no confidence are of the same position which entails coming back in unison after 2 weeks to finish off the unfinished matter of removing Brink from his position.
“We respect the ongoing legal issues, and the motion shall be temporarily withdrawn so that we can deal with side issues that are creating impediments in our mission to remove the mayor,” said Matjila.
It has now emerged that the ANC and the EFF are not the only parties calling for the removal of Brink as the mayor, but that parties like AIC, Defenders of the People (DOPE), Congress of the People (COPE) ATM and ACDP have also jumped onto the bangwagon to get rid of Brink.
Brink’s only ally now is the Freedom Front Plus, but if the motion is eventually tabled, the votes of those two parties won’t count for much.
“We are going to remove Brink and it’s going to happen because we have consulted our legal counsel and we are in agreement that we should let the matter rest for now and raise in two weeks’ time because we don’t want to leave anything chance, because should we miss fire now regarding his removal, then we will have to wait for another three months before we table another motion of no confidence, and we can’t wait a day longer to see him gone,” said Tshwane EEF chairperson Obakeng Ramabodu.
Ramabodu described Brink as a bully and incompetent person, stressing that this is not about Brinks color but his in ability to govern the city of Tshwane.
LASCA Tshwane Parliament Tshepo Mahlangu said LASCA weigh in on withdrawal of Executive Mayor’s Motion.
“We heard that the High Court granted the Interdict on today’s motion.
The Court order or interdict is only for 2 weeks but it doesn’t necessarily mean that the Motion won’t go ahead,” said Mahlangu.
Mahlangu said the residents of Tshwane were hoping that tomorrow he will be no longer an Executive Mayor.
“It’s disappointing that Brink will still be in charge of the Capital City, fumes the residents after learning that he went to file court papers to interdict Council
But 2 weeks is just around the corner,” he said.