Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink has maintained that the current coalition configuration, which includes Action SA, remains the best vehicle to restore the capital city to its former glory.
Despite a move by senior political party leaders to have the government of national unity cascade down to municipal level, Brink holds the opposite view.
“The election results and the GNU to a certain extent have created some confusion all over, about what now in Gauteng and Tshwane,” he said.
“As somebody who has to look after the interests of this city and its residents, the most credible vehicle to improving service delivery, infrastructure and finances is the existing coalition.”
Despite his wishes, Brink says the ultimate decision lies with the national leadership of the DA.
“There might be a different calculation by the party, and in other cities — but in Tshwane, trying to preserve this coalition is going to give us a measure of stability to implement what we have been devising.
“I'll take guidance from the national leadership of the party, but I have maintained that we are committed to our coalition in Tshwane, and I don't see that necessarily changing.”
Brink told TimesLIVE Premium that his government is making solid advances in addressing the areas of concern in the capital.
“The situation with regards to the cleanliness of the city has improved, but there are still a lot of complaints about illegal dumping and dirt, in some instances there is an unreliability of the bin-lifting service.
“What we have done is try to rebuild a system to produce good results. It involves appointing competent senior managers who don't do politics, we can't have politicians in senior management positions.
— Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink
“The essentials of municipal services become a reliable supply of water. In Mamelodi there is illegal occupation on the site where there is a reservoir, with people tapping into that reservoir, but we are slowly but surely securing the site, taking legal action to get the people off the land and having those illegal connections disconnected.”
Brink said there were complaints about electricity disruptions, lthough these are fewer since there has been no load-shedding.
Over the past 16 months in office, Brink says he has tried to communicate that service delivery is the result of a system that works or doesn't work.
“What we have done is try to rebuild a system to produce good results. It involves appointing competent senior managers who don't do politics, we can't have politicians in senior management positions.
“You have to implement performance requirements for contractors and act against instances of misspending, we have dealt with billions of rand in unauthorised, irregular and fruitless expenditure in the past year.”
The mayor conceded that the “difficult decisions” he has had to make have caused disruption and opposition, but maintains that his firm hand is necessary for improvements.
This after he survived a no-confidence motion on Friday, having ruffled feathers by presiding over new policy direction on the requirements needed from “tenderpreneurs” who are contracted by the city.
This led to a public spat with the ANC, accusing him of being unfair to black business owners.
“The no-confidence motion was principally driven by a waste removal contract. Politicians don't become involved in drafting contract specifications or adjudicating tenders, but we do give general direction on policy and ensure that the service is reliable and effective.
“The sticking point was three new but not radical requirements — that the trucks not be older than eight years, that they be fitted with tracking devices so that the invoice reflects the routes they are invoicing for, and that they update the latest documentation.”
After the tightening of the standards, subcontractors who had previously done work with the city protested these requirements. Brink said it is evident that they went through a vetting process and they did not meet these performance standards.
“This seemed to be the source of the conflict, there was an interaction with the DA and ANC that suggested that they were unhappy with these amendments.
“They announced the first no-confidence motion in my 16 months in office. They said the requirements were unfair and that they disadvantage black business owners.”
Brink told TimesLIVE Premium that he personally checked and the vast majority of contractors who made the mark and benefit from the tender are black owned and are able to comply.
“The city has also done a benchmarking exercise with Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni. Ekurhuleni expects their trucks to be no more than three years old and Joburg not older than five years — and these are ANC-run metros.
“The accusations in respect of the performance requirements are false and the suspicion is that folks with links to the ANC have had their business interests threatened by this and the response has been to file a no-confidence motion against me.”
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