The ANC and ActionSA are yet to clinch a deal on what should happen in the City of Tshwane after they vote out Cilliers Brink as mayor on Thursday.
The election of the new mayor is unlikely to take place on the same day. Though the two parties seem to have agreed in principle, they are yet to put pen to paper on who takes which positions.
It appears the ANC has agreed to give ActionSA the mayoral chain while the ANC gets the speaker. The EFF and other smaller parties are expected to share the spoils of the mayoral committee.
Insiders say, however, after what is expected to be a successful motion of no confidence in Brink on Thursday, they will go back to the negotiating table to finalise the deal.
The council sitting expected to debate the ANC-sponsored motion of no confidence on Brink got off to a slow start on Thursday.
The DA asked for two caucus breaks which took an hour each.
After a back and forth with the councillors, speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana begrudgingly granted the second caucus break.
The ANC and the EFF opposed this caucus break, saying they were ready to proceed with the business of the day.
Earlier ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said his party has taken a decision to remove Brink whom he described as “arrogant”.
He said the DA has continuously stabbed ActionSA in the back and that Tshwane residents cannot expect his party to work with such a party.
“I’m going to remove a mayor who is arrogant with a party that is also corrupt, a party that doesn’t care about providing services to poor communities,” said Mashaba.
The decision by Mashaba to cut ties with the DA has set the cat among the pigeons, giving the ANC confidence that its motion to remove Brink will pass without hindrances.
Mashaba said negotiations with the ANC were hampered by the DA’s attempt to get the ANC to save them.
The Sunday Times earlier this month reported that the DA had approached the ANC to discuss a deal to help it keep control of Tshwane, the seat of national government.
The publication reported that the government of local unity coalition of the ANC, EFF, ActionSA and other smaller parties has set its sights on Tshwane after successfully installing the ANC’s Dada Morero as mayor of Johannesburg.
Rattled by the developments in Johannesburg, the DA was at the time said to have reached out to Gauteng ANC chair Panyaza Lesufi, requesting a meeting to discuss how the two parties could work together.
Mashaba said the two parties have not yet discussed who would benefit from its arrangement.
"The DA national leadership was doing everything possible to sabotage this motion,” said Mashaba.
“Fortunately what I’ve learnt from the ANC is that they’ve now got the mandate from their national leadership for this motion to serve. The ANC and us will get together and put together a government that is going to serve all residents of Tshwane.”
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