As he prepares to become a City of Cape Town councillor, Tony Ehrenreich says that if he retains his position as Cosatu’s provincial secretary, he will put his city council salary into a trust account to be used for charity.
Ehrenreich, who was the ANC’s mayoral candidate for Cape Town and who lost out to the DA’s Patricia de Lille, said the unions affiliated to Cosatu would meet in the next few weeks to decide if he should stay on as the provincial secretary until the end of his term in June next year.
He said that if the decision was for him to stay on and take up a seat in the city council, he would not accept two salaries.
Speaking about his defeat at the polls, he said he felt “sad” that the city had missed an opportunity to urgently address issues like building integrated societies.
Ehrenreich said he felt that his campaign had made the wealthy in the city panic, sending them in very high numbers to the polls to ensure that the ANC did not come into power, and “… defend their apartheid privileges”.
“It’s a missed opportunity to undo the original sin of apartheid,” said Ehrenreich.
Despite his sadness, Ehrenreich said he was still enthused about his future role, and did not regard his loss as a complete defeat.
“(De Lille) may be the official mayor, but I am still regarded as the people’s mayor,” he said.
In his position as a councillor, Ehrenreich said his focus would be prioritising the needs of the poor, and he would keep a close eye on the ruling party.
“We’ll mainly be watching what the DA does with backyard dwellers and informal settlements, which have been neglected,” he said.
“We’ll also look at public transport, and getting those MyCiTi buses into the Cape Flats.” - Cape Argus