Pretoria – Newly elected Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga says interruptions by the African National Congress in the city will not impact the implementation of the Democratic Alliance’s vision of turning around the capital city.
“It’s quite interesting that people who have always been treated with respect when we were in the opposition cannot show to us the same courtesy. I’m glad that the people of Tshwane and indeed the people of South Africa get to see why service delivery had stalled,” Msimanga told reporters at his first media briefing as mayor.
“It is in the interest of the people to hear what I had to say but they wouldn’t let me talk to the people of our city. We will ensure that we are open for business so that we can start attracting investors to be able to start creating employment for our people. That is the message I wanted to give today. Unfortunately, I could not because of the unruliness of the ex governing party.”
Msimanga vowed that no amount of interruption by the ANC will derail his plans for the city.
“We will drag them (ANC) kicking and screaming. They will experience service delivery in the areas they are coming from and the people that they represent.”
Regarding rumours that the DA administration would purge ANC members in council jobs, Msimanga said such allegations were unfounded.
“I’m not in the business of purging people. People’s jobs are safe. We will be engaging department by department to see what shortages they have. We will be retaining some skills but we will also ensure that people get to sign performance agreements.”
“I must say that I’m not going to tolerate people who were appointed politically in official (City of Tshwane) positions using those positions to sabotage the programmes of government. That is something I will not be able to tolerate.”
Msimanga said the days of government officials criss-crossing the capital city with police escorts flashing blue lights are over.
“Blue lights will be a thing of the past in this city. The only person allowed to have blue lights will be the president of the country and nobody else. Gone are the days where elected public officials think they are VIPs. The VIPs in this city will be the residents,” he said.
Msimanga was elected by the newly constituted Tshwane council as Executive Mayor on Friday.
Newly elected Speaker of the Tshwane council, DA councillor Rachel Mathebe, presided over the session. Msimanga was the only nominee and there were loud cheers from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) benches when Msimanga was declared mayor.
Moments later, the DA’s Christo van der Heever was elected the new chief whip of the Tshwane council.
African News Agency