After showing vigour and vim in ousting Cilliers Brink from his position as City of Tshwane Mayor some few days ago, the ANC in Tshwane itself is now still clueless as to who the party’s mayoral candidate would be.
This with only 48 hours left for the election of the new mayor and with the public anxiously waiting for the identity of the person who the ANC wants to take over as mayor from deposed Brink.
“We are still where we were the last time I spoke to you as we are still waiting for the National Working Committee of the ANC to provide guidance regarding the way things must unfold,” said ANC Tshwane Regional Secretary George Matjila when asked to reveal the identity of Tshwane ANC’s preferred candidate for the mayoral position.
“Right now we are not sure whether their view would be that of the ANC in Tshwane putting up its own candidate or whether they would prefer to have another person as a candidate of the ANC,” explained Matjila.
“We have lots of capable comrades within the army of the ANC but the process of how we should line them up has not yet started at national level and therefore it is difficult to pronounce on issues which the National Working Committee has not committed to,” he said.
“The ANC in Tshwane is ready to field its own candidate but we can’t sing out of tune and work outside the upper structures of the party, but as soon as we are given the green light everything will roll,” he said.
Matjila pointed out that they have been talking with almost all parties in Tshwane regarding the installation of the new mayor.
“Young people by their own nature have their own ambitions and may see things differently but we met with them after the media conference and we are happy about their explanation,” said Matjila when told that younger ANC Councillors called a media conference whereby they announced their own preferred candidates for the position of the mayor.
When confronted with speculation that some parties in the ANC-led alliance, like ActionSA are not prepared to work with the EFF, Matjila responded as follows:
“I am not sure which parties are those, but we as the ANC talk to all parties that are in Council and we don’t discriminate against any party.” he said.
“From our side it is Brink or nothing because we feel that if one goes into a coalition with any other party, stability should be the order of the day and that it was unnecessary to remove him in the first place,” said former MMC for Utilities Themba Fosi, who is a DA Councillor.
“At the moment the City of Tshwane is in chaos as there is no agreed candidate coming from those who removed him and this shows that those who removed him failed to plan and if one fails to plan then one is set to fail,” he said.
“Brink has been doing a stellar job in Tshwane and we want him to continue where he has left off together with the coalition government of the City,” he said.
He revealed that it is only ActionSA that has pulled out of the coalition government, thinking that one of them would easily ascend to the position of Executive Mayor of Tshwane but apparently the ANC thinks otherwise in this regard.
“The grass is not always greener on the other side,” gloated Fosi regarding ActionSA’s apparent failure to impose its own candidate on the ANC.
He lamented the fact that ActionSA threw Brink and the coalition government under the bus without a backup plan.
Fosi said former ActionSA MMCs must take the blame regarding so-called “unserviced areas” because they were the ones who were in charge of those areas.
He emphasised that there was no way they as DA would work with the EFF as it represents instability in the politics of local government.
“There is political immaturity on the part of ActionSA and the City has now been plunged into chaos due to their bickering and bitterness towards the Government of National Unity,” said Fosi as he pointed out that ActionSA itself chose not to be part of the Government of National Unity and nobody prevented it from being part of it.
“There is not going to be fresh elections here in Tshwane and what we want is simply for Brink to be back,” he said.
“On Wednesday I will be in Council to vote for Brink to be reinstated due to many factors that include progress in the Rooiwaal Water Treatment Plant in Hammanskraal and successful electrification efforts in places like Soshanguve,” said Fosi.
He said the removal of Brink is a negative step by some members of the Tshwane ANC as it is against the letter and spirit of the GNU, because the DA and ANC work well together there.
Former MMC for Environmental Affairs and IFP Tshwane caucus Ziyanda Zwane, who is an Inkatha Freedom Party Councillor, told Tshwane Talks that he worked well with the DA and other parties in Brink’s Mayoral Committee.
“The issue of trust going forward between us as IFP and ActionSA would be a bit tricky but I would leave the DA to answer that question, as ActionSA raised issues against the DA and not IFP per se,” said Zwane as he revealed that he will vote for a mayoral candidate in terms of the IFP’s instructions to him.