Mashudu Sadike and Rapula Moatshe
Pretoria - Four former Tshwane MMCs who served under Randall Williams have missed out in the new City executive of DA’s mayor Cilliers Brink.
On Friday Brink announced 10 MMCs who would serve under his stewardship for the embattled municipality.
Brink claimed the bragging rights to the mayoral (post) last week, beating Cope candidate Ofentse Moalusi by seven votes.
He received 109 votes to Moalusi’s 102 after weeks of turbulence in the municipality.
The EFF and the ANC were ganging up against the DA and its coalition partners, but failed to elect their candidate to the hot seat.
The opposition had initially teamed up to elect the then Cope councillor Dr Murunwa Makwarela, who had to resign following his insolvency certificate scandal.
The nation’s capital has since February been without a mayor after Makwarela was forced to resign.
On Friday, Brink excluded four MMCs who served under Williams, who made a dramatic exit following the City of Tshwane’s adverse audit report issued by the auditor-general for 2021/22.
Members who were left out were Dikeledi Selowa (Roads and Transport), Daryl Johnston (MMC for Utilities and Regional Operations), MMCs Andre Le Roux (Economic Development and Spatial Planning) and Kgosietsile Kgosiemang (Human Settlements).
Both Kgosiemang and Le Roux, who are ActionSA councillors, were recently accused of meddling in a land acquisition deal involving five properties in Kameeldrift 298-JR which the municipality wanted to purchase at the cost of R2.5 million.
Senior municipal officials claimed the pair held a secret meeting with sellers to persuade them to raise the properties’ price from R2.5m to R3m.
The EFF in Tshwane pressed criminal charges against them, claiming that the pair wanted to pocket around R500 000 each from the proceeds of the properties’ sale.
ActionSA initially said the two councillors were under internal party investigation for allegations of corruption levelled against them.
Kgosiemang was replaced with a DA councillor Ofentse Madzebatela and Le Roux with Hannes Coetzee (ActionSA).
Coetzee, a former Ward 96 DA councillor, who joined ActionSA last year, described himself as a man of action who put a plan in place if there was none.
He had accused the DA-led administration of failing to attend to Rooiwal treatment plant to ensure that people in Hammanskraal had access to drinkable water.
Most glaringly in Brink’s mayoral committee was that ActionSA’s representatives were reduced from three to two owing to the agreement that the party must take over the office of the speaker.
The party’s Kholofelo Moorodi who contested for the speaker’s position with a sole African Transformation Movement councillor, Mncedi Ndzwanana, lost after 69 DA councillors violated electoral laws by compromising their identities during a secret ballot election.
The implicated councillors used numbers to mark their votes, instead of crosses, resulting in their ballots being declared as spoiled.
Former speaker Katlego Mathebe, who previously served as MMC for Environment and Agriculture, replaced Selowa as Roads and Transport MMC.
Brink appointed IFP’s Ziyanda Zwane in Mathebe’s previous position while DA’s Themba Fosi replaced fellow party member Johnston.
Those who retained their positions were Kingsley Wakelin for Corporate and Shared Services, Peter Sutton for Finance, Grandi Theunissen for Community Safety, Peggy De Bruin for Social Development and Rina Marx for Health.
The 10-member team consists of Kingsley Wakelin (DA) for Corporate and Shared Services, Hannes Coetzee (ActionSA) for Economic Development and Spatial Planning, Themba Fosi (DA) for Utilities and Regional Operations, Ziyanda Zwane (IFP) for Environment and Agriculture, Peter Sutton (DA) for Finance, Katlego Mathebe (DA) for Roads and Transport, Grandi Theunissen (FF+) for Community Safety, Peggy de Bruin (Action SA) for Social Development, Ofentse Madzebatela (DA) for Human Settlements and Rina Marx (FF+) for Health.
Announcing his team to the media on Friday, Brink said the team was tasked with prioritising the City’s finances and stability by devising and implementing a bold recovery plan “focusing on the core functions of the municipality”.
He said: “We are going to improve basic services pertaining to pothole repairs, street light maintenance, grass cutting and public cleaning.”
Pretoria News