I accept the DA nomination to become mayor of Tshwane with a renewed determination to finish the work we started – to build a capital city that delivers for honest, hardworking people.
South Africans, and the people of the capital city, have a common purpose that is strong enough for us to stop corruption, take back our streets from criminals, improve service delivery, rebuild infrastructure, and draw investment needed to create jobs for young people.
To serve that common purpose is why I am in politics.
For decades the ANC stripped out internal systems and controls in Tshwane, deployed their own cadres into management positions, and used the city as an automated cash machine.
When the ANC finally lost power in the 2016 local government election, the party used its network of cadres and tenderpreneurs to make Tshwane ungovernable, disrupting council meetings, blocking disciplinary action against senior officials, and conspiring with the corrupt Gauteng government to place Tshwane under unlawful administration.
They plunged Tshwane into chaos, and brought the city to the edge of financial ruin. But these tacit didn’t win back the votes which the ANC had lost, and so, the party was again relegated to the opposition in 2021.
That is until a party with a mandate never to work with the ANC under any circumstances, betrayed the DA coalition to bring the ANC back to power.
In the 18 months which my team and I led the DA coalition we took on the cadre state, and moved the city forward. After years of coalition chaos and political wrangling, we improved the city’s audit outcome, and in 2023 achieved the biggest improvement in financial sustainability of all metros.
Working with national government, we devised a solution to the Hammanskraal water crisis that would see residents getting clean water from taps and not tankers. We appointed a diverse group of competent professionals into management positions, and backed city manager Johann Mettler in his efforts to dismiss the Rooiwal Five,officials implicated in awarding a rigged tender to the ANC benefactor Edwin Sodi.
We stood up to a violent, unprotected strike, fighting for Tshwane residents who in 2023 could not afford to pay R600 million in salary increases for councillors and officials.
Our position was later upheld by the Labour Court, and the savings we achieved enabled Tshwane to reach a favourable payment arrangement with Eskom. At the same time, we took the first steps to make Tshwane less dependent on Eskom, an important backup against loadshedding, by approving the lease of Pretoria West and Rooiwal power stations to the independent power producers (IPPs).
We budgeted for a transactional adviser to get the city the best possible deal in procuring such a lease. We took similar steps to get private sector investment and expertise at Wonderboom National Airport, the Fresh Produce Market, and the city’s Bon Accord asphalt quarry.
We budgeted for the rollout of solar powered streetlights, and the appointment of dedicated street light teams, because we know that dark streets provide cover to criminals. We established more than 20 community uplifting prescient’s, partnerships between the city and civil society to fix potholes and streetlights and cut grass.
We established new performance standards for waste removal contractors, because those contracts were overcharging taxpayers while neglecting the city’s townships. We insisted that waste removal trucks be fitted with tracking devices, that those trucks be in good working order, and that subcontracts be held to the same standards.
We refused to back down from these standards, not even when ANC regional secretary in Tshwane, George Matjila, a man who operates in the waste removal contracting business, threatened our government with a motion of no confidence.
When that motion finally came, ActionSA helped the ANC get back to power, just like the same party tried to help the ANC pass a VAT hike. While ActionSA gets to wear the mayoral chain, the programme of the new government is determined by the ANC.
In the corridors of Tshwane House George Matjila is called the real mayor.
Now that the ANC is back in charge, they and the EFF want to get rid of Johann Mettler as city manager, just like their coalition of corruption did in Nelson Mandela Bay in 2018.
They want the Rooiwal Five back at work, and stop the process started under DA leadership to have Edwin Sodi and Blackhead consulting blacklisted from doing business with the state.
The ANC coalition has already forced out a senior official called Ashraf Adam. He was responsible for making important changes at the Fresh Produce Market. Under DA leadership, Adam’s instruction was to maintain the city’s relationship with the market agents who took the city to court.
When Adam left, the work stopped, communication broke down, and now the ANC coalition mayor faces a suspended sentence for contempt of court. The ANC coalition has all but abandoned the plans to partner with the private sector to revive the power stations, the Fresh Produce Market, Wonderboom national airport, and the asphalt quarry.
They’ve increased Tshwane’s wheeling tariff so much that it actually discourages investment in alternative energy generation. Gone are the plans for solar streetlights and dedicated street light teams. AfriForum and others have been told they can’t help to cut grass, presumably because this will mean the city has to spend less money on tenders.
In their first adjustment budget, the ANC coalition defunded water and electricity teams to increase spending on water tanker contracts by 64% and security companies by 103%. The ANC deputy mayor Bonzo Modise has an interest in one of those companies which we believe he did not declare and did not divest.
While the mayor pretends to crack down on lawless informal trading, she is apparently powerless when faced with the lawless leaders in her own mayoral committee.
Since the beginning of the year Tshwane under the leadership of an ANC coalition mayor has had more power cuts than when Eskom loadshedding was last in place.
As soon as the DA and our coalition partners were removed from office Tshwane started falling behind on the revenue collection targets of the budgeting funding plan. In July, the city ended the 2024/25 financial year with a R857 million deficit.
To plug the deficit, the ANC coalition introduced a city cleansing levy for this financial year. But the same budget that raised the city cleansing levy did not in fact increase spending on city cleansing. Challenged in court by AfriForum, the city could not produce basic documents to sustain its case.
The judge was scathing about how the city wasted taxpayers’ money in fighting an unwinnable case. But even before the city’s spokesperson could say that they were still studying the judgment, the responsible EFF MMC announced that the city would use more taxpayers’ money to appeal the judgment.
To distract from the failure, the ANC is happy to hide behind a third-party mayor, while they make the decisions and avoid media attention. In the meantime, the mayor seems to do things only for social media posts. She closes downs Marabastad Retail Market, calling the South Africans who trade their lawfully illegal occupants.
But she ignores the illegal traders just outside the building. In fact, there seems to be an entire block of buildings which has been carried away, brick by brick, in Marabastad which has failed to grab the mayor’s attention. She seems to find it easier to crack down on people who in fact obey the law.
The DA has done our best to expose what is happening in Tshwane, to hold the ANC coalition and its sidecar mayor to account. But only the voters can put an end to this farce. To finish the work we started, to build a capital city that delivers to honest, hardworking people the DA needs a strong mandate, a stable platform from which to delivery, backing from the people for changes that have to be carried through.
It’s not enough to field an anti-corruption, pro-delivery mayor.
To pass budgets, appoint senior officials, act against corruption and incompetence, and make policy changes to make it easier to do business in Tshwane, we need an anti-corruption, pro-delivery council.
The weaker the ANC, and the less we have to depend on small parties that habitually sell out to the ANC, the better our chances of success.
Of course, we will take hands to work other parties who share our values, but what this city now needs more than anything else is strong leadership.
I extend an invitation to the people of Tshwane to residents, businesses, churches, civil society organisations, and everyone who love our capital city.
In the next few months, I want to meet you, and understand what our municipality can do or stop doing to make your life better.
My team and I have extensive experience in government. We come from every part of this city. We speak all of its languages. We know what the municipality looks like on the inside.
Our colleagues in Cape Town are helping us stay on the cutting edge of excellent government.
But we do not presume to know everything. What we learn from you, the people of Tshwane, in the following months will inform the pledges we will unveil later this year.
These pledges will focus on fighting crime, ending corruption, rebuilding water and electricity infrastructure, and delivering value for money.
But they will be more specific. They will help us deliver change, but they will also help residents hold us to account at the next election.
Let’s strike fear into the hearts of the corrupt.
Let’s put the incompetent on notice.
Let’s make Tshwane a capital city that delivers, not the tenderpreneurs and friends of Edwin Sodi but to honest, hardworking people.