FINALLY, the embattled City of Tshwane has a new Mayor.
The DA led coalition councillor Cilliers Brink was elected the City’s Mayor on Tuesday evening, after voting in the chambers.
Brink spearheaded the DA-led coalition government to regain the City after briefly losing it to Cope councillor Murunwa Makwarela with the support of the ANC-EFF-led alliance last month.
However, Makwarela was forced to resign after it was brought to light that he submitted a fraudulent insolvency rehabilitation certificate.
Makwarela, who was declared insolvent in 2016, submitted a fraudulent rehabilitation certificate as evidence that his matter was resolved.
After much scrutiny, it was discovered that Makwarela’s case was never resolved.
This forced the City Manager to re-advertise the position after informing the electoral commission about the disqualification of Makwarela.
This led to back and forth as ANC-EFF led alliance tried in vain to win the hotly contested seat in the Capital City.
Brink received 109 votes against Cope councillor, Ofentse Moalusi who only managed to amass 102 votes.
In his maiden speech Brink said: “In the past decade, excessive salary increases were negotiated outside of collective bargaining and out of proportion to what is paid in other places.
The Covid-19 locked down for a long time by national governments, unlawful intervention by the Gauteng provincial government, and the devastating effects of permanent load shedding destroying our infrastructure, driving vandalism and theft, reducing revenue, and encouraging residents not to pay for services,” he said.
He added they would have to talk to national government about the seismic shifts in their revenue system to restore the balance between income and expenditure.
Brink mentioned they would have to make difficult decisions in the next few months: “We must return to the core mandate of local government and find affordable means to serve their constitutional mandate.”
“The people of Tshwane look to us to resolve our differences in an orderly way that avoids violence and hatred and that does not disrupt the functioning of the government. No matter how low debate has sunk in this council, it can never be acceptable for us to threaten each other with violence.”
The Metro has been given 3-days deadline to pass an adjusted Budget, as per Gauteng MEC for cooperative governance, Mzi Khumalo.
ANC in the Metro has promised to work with Brink in the name of service delivery.
Image (New CoT Mayor DA’s Cilliers Brink).
