The election of Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor Cilliers Brink as Tshwane mayor on Tuesday has received mixed reactions from opposition parties.
Brink beat newly sworn-in Congress of the People (Cope) councillor Ofenste Moalusi by 109 to 102 votes.
Speaking following the news of his appointment, Funzi Ngobeni, ActionSA Gauteng chairperson, admitted that the City of Tshwane experienced uncertain times over the last few weeks.
He added that he was, however, confident that stability in Tshwane would be restored.
‘Roller coaster’
“It’s been a roller coaster for the past few weeks. The people of Tshwane must have lost confidence in us as a multi-party coalition but I think they will realise that we are going to restore stability back into the City. There is still a lot of work to be done.
“It’s important that he must realise that service delivery must be at the forefront. We need to fastrack that and make sure we recover the lost time but we quite excited. I think majority of Tshwane,” said Ngobeni.
Regret
Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the City said it “regretted” the election of Brink as it signified “another seven years of poor service delivery” under the multiparty coalition.
“Tshwane municipality degenerated to pathetic levels of financial position, including downgrading by ratings agencies under the DA. The adverse audit finding by the Auditor General was against the DA-led coalition. Tshwane was labelled the worst performing municipality in Gauteng under the DA multiparty,” the statement reads.
Tshwane EFF said it would hold Brink accountable and demand concrete steps to address audit findings and restore service delivery in the municipality.
NOW READ: Auditor-general flags ‘serious irregularities’ in City of Tshwane’s finances
Government for the people
Speaking after being elected Brink said: “This will be a government be a government that serves all of the people not some of the people, not the connected few, not insiders but especially outsiders – especially people who depend on basic services in order to move up in life. That is the mission and I am sure that the coalition parties share this commitment.”
He added that he was willing and open to speak to opposition parties to find out what issues they have.
“I don’t want us to revert to the violence we have seen in this chamber before and that is why as a coalition, and mayoral committee that I will soon appoint will speak to the opposition and we will take constructive proposals going forward.”
READ MORE: DA’s Cilliers Brink elected as City of Tshwane mayor
