Embattled City of Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink, who is on the brink of being removed from his mayoral position if the motion of no confidence is passed in him, insists that he won’t fire ActionSA MMCs and portfolio committee chairpersons.
This despite ActionSA having made it clear that it would be quitting the City of Tshwane Coalition Government and vote with the ANC and other parties on 26 September this year to get rid of Brink as mayor.
Brink made this revelation on Thursday while addressing the media in his mayoral office at Tshwane House, the headquarters of the municipality.
He explained that should he fire ActionSA Councilors from their respective positions, which include the berth of the Deputy Mayor of the City of Tshwane, then that would plunge the city into a service delivery crisis, citing key projects like resolving the Hammanskraal water crisis.
At the moment ActionSA Councilor Dr Nasiphi Moya is the City’s second in command after Brink himself by virtue of being the Deputy Mayor.
Asked whether he would pack his bags and go back to his job as DA’s Member of Parliament in the National Assembly, Brink said he won’t entertain hypothesis and that he still paid his allegiance to the City of Tshwane and its people.
“I am committed to the City of Tshwane, my family lives here in Tshwane, I left a comfortable job as MP in Cape Town and relocated to Tshwane to come and lead an unpredictable coalition government,” enthused Brink.
Meanwhile, ANC spokesperson Lesego Makhubela said in a radio interview on Thursday that Brink and the DA have collectively mismanaged the City of Tshwane for 9 years; citing financial scandals that rocked the City of Tshwane before Brink became Mayor.
“R17 billion Rand has been mismanaged and R1,7 billion can’t be accounted for,” he said.
“We spoke to all parties including the Freedom Front in Tshwane regarding the removal of Brink as mayor and as far as I am concerned Brink is already a former mayor of Tshwane and no longer the incumbent mayor,” insisted Makhubela.
“At the moment Brink is gaslighting the problems that the people of that City ate going through,” said Makhubela.
When confronted with suggestions that the national structures of the ANC are apparently against the decision to remove Brink from his position because the DA and ANC are partners in the Government of National Unity, Makhubela insisted that all structures of the ANC work in tandem and that the national structures are supporting the idea of passing a vote of no confidence in Brink.
“The national structures of the ANC have been consulted in this regard and it was agreed that Brink must be removed,” he said.