DA Randall Williams retained as mayor of Tshwane
DA’s Randall Williams retained as mayor of Tshwane thanks to ActionSA boost
Before voting began, the ANC made it clear it would not vote for anyone, nor would it nominate councilors.
After Williams was elected as mayor, the ANC’s Aaron Maluleke congratulated Williams.
“It was a hung council, so it was not a given and it could’ve gone either way. We’ve got our work cut out for us. People want water, not stories,” said Maluleke.
The DA won 32.03% of the vote, which gives it 69 seats. The ANC won 34.63% of the vote, which gives it 75 seats. ActionSA won 8.64% for 19 seats and the EFF won 10.69%, winning 23 seats.
Williams’ win did not come as a surprise, Herman Mashaba, the leader of ActionSA, said to reporters that his party would vote for a DA mayor in Tshwane.
This came after the DA’s Mpho Phalatse took over the mayor’s office in Johannesburg, and the DA’s Tania Campbell became the mayor in the City of Ekurhuleni.
Mashaba said: “ActionSA used our votes in councils [on Monday] to elect DA mayors [in the cities of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni] because the collapsing of coalition arrangements and refusal of the DA to negotiate meant the alternative would have been ANC governments in these cities.
“ActionSA is absolutely committed to putting aside all past experiences with the DA to work together in the interests of service delivery, fighting corruption and job creation. We demonstrated this yesterday with our votes and not just our words.”
However, ActionSA has made it clear that voting with the DA does not necessarily mean that the parties have a formal agreement.
Speaking at a briefing on Tuesday morning, before the Tshwane council meeting, DA leader John Steenhuisen said that Monday’s developments in the votes for mayor and Speaker in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni “came as a surprise to everyone, including us in the DA.
“We didn’t ask for help from the EFF to lead these governments and we did not expect to leave these meetings with two new DA mayors and both these metros’ first-ever female mayors,” said Steenhuisen.
Commenting on the EFF’s decision to vote for the party’s candidates, Steenhuisen said that “it was clear that the EFF voted against the ANC more than they voted for the DA. They extracted no concessions from us and they will get none.”
The City of Tshwane has faced a number of challenges and controversies in the past few years. In 2019, the South African Human Rights Commission deemed the water in Hammanskraal as “unfit for human consumption”.
In August, ActionSA released its own independent report on the water crisis in Hammanskraal. Earlier in the year, the party commissioned an inquiry into the Hammanskraal water crisis by an independent commission.
Mashaba handed the report over to Williams. ActionSA said: “The commission has characterized the City of Tshwane as insensitive, irresponsive, non-transparent, unaccountable and marked by delinquent inertia on the water crisis in Hammanskraal.”
Adding to the city’s woes, in June, Moody’s downgraded Tshwane.
“The four-notch downgrade of Tshwane’s long-term global scale rating reflects the sharp deterioration in the city’s liquidity pointing to a significant risk of default on its financial obligations. Contrary to Moody’s previous expectations, higher financing needs have not been matched by larger financing flows,” the rating agency said
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