FORMER Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi has quit the DA after 14 years.
Baloyi made the announcement on his Twitter page on Monday.
He said he was leaving the party on his own terms to pursue other opportunities.
“My journey with @Our_DA ends today. It has been an amazing 14 years which I will always be proud of and I will remain great ful [sic] to the DA for their support and opportunities afforded to me,” he said in his post.
He added he was leaving the DA out of his “own agency” and was not being purged “or any nonsense”.
“I leave on my time and terms, with a clean track record in government and the party. Now it’s time for me to focus on exciting opportunities before me. Good luck to the friends, colleagues and leadership of @Our_DA. We will meet somewhere,” he said.
He also sought to set the record straight saying that his departure from the part was not an indication that he was retiring from politics.
Baloyi became South Africa’s youngest mayor for Midvaal in 2013 at age 26.
The DA confirmed receiving Baloyi’s resignation, also on a Twitter post.
“The DA leadership has received Bongani Baloyi’s resignation this morning. Bongani has served the DA and the people of Midvaal Municipality excellently over the years. He became the country’s youngest mayor at the age of 26 back in 2013,” the party’s post read.
While running Midvaal Municipality, Baloyi received seven consecutive clean audits. Under his leadership, the municipality went from being the 16th best-performing municipality in 2013 to the fifth best in the national rankings.
Baloyi managed to create what has been referred to as a service delivery and governance blueprint.
Midvaal Local Municipality is part of Sedibeng District Municipality and is surrounded by some of the worst-performing municipalities in the country, Emfuleni and Lesedi.
Midvaal Municipality has also been recognised for the exceptional work that the public servants put in. Last year, Midvaal was awarded the Golden Arrow award for doing the most to combat crime, create jobs, clean up the environment and develop infrastructure.
The stellar work and leadership in the municipality have had custodians of good governance in awe. Former auditor-general, the late Kimi Makwetu, once exclaimed that Midvaal was one of the few municipalities whose financial statements told a good story of how well the municipality was managed.
In a previous interview with the Sunday Independent, Baloyi attributed the running of the municipality to the active participation of residents in the municipality's affairs. He said they have strong activism from various interest groups who can keep a watchful eye over the institution and really ask difficult questions about the performance, which does not really happen in public.
Political Bureau