Pretoria - The national treasurer of the ACDP, Derrick Kissoonduth, also a PR councillor in Tshwane metro, has hit back at mayor Randall Williams for saying he excluded him from his mayoral committee because of his poor track record.
Williams made the statement last week during his acceptance speech after being nominated as the DA mayoral candidate for Tshwane in the upcoming local government elections.
Making a point that parties should not form coalitions based on narrow interest, he said: “So, you don't enter into coalition based on narrow interest and in fact that is the problem I discovered when I went into office last year. One of the parties entered into a coalition purely on the basis that they wanted to satisfy the career perspectives of one politician and he was performing poorly.
“So I did not appoint him to my mayoral committee because you should never have a coalition based on narrow interest.”
Although Williams didn't name Kissoonduth as the politician, it was known that he was the one excluded from the mayoral committee.
In November last year, Kissoonduth expressed his displeasure after he was not appointed by Williams as an MMC.
He previously served as MMC for community safety and health under former mayors Solly Msimanga and Stevens Mokgalapa.
During the same period the ACDP leader, Kenneth Meshoe, wrote to DA federal council chairperson Helen Zille informing her about his party’s decision to quit the coalition agreement.
That was after the ACDP committee resolved to withdraw from a co-governance agreement signed by Cope, the Freedom Front Plus, DA, ACDP and UDM after the polls in 2016.
At the time, Zille told the Pretoria News: “This is unfortunate. Voters are increasingly becoming aware that voting for small parties often leads to unstable and precarious coalitions, where smaller parties run the risk of elevating positions above principles.”
Regarding Williams's latest public utterance, Kissoonduth said he didn't "want to fight him", but he should ask for the opinions of his predecessors about him. He said both Msimanga and Mokgalapa praised him for doing a good job under their leadership.
During Msimanga's tenure he was appointed as the acting mayor.
“It would be very strange for the DA to tell me that I am not good enough while it made me an acting mayor with full authority for the City of Tshwane,” Kissoonduth said.
He said before Mokgalapa left office, he thanked him for the wisdom he provided in running the City.
When he assumed office, Mokgalapa didn't appoint Williams as part of the mayoral committee despite the fact that he had served as the MMC for economic development and spatial planning.
In his CV, Kissoonduth highlighted regarding his MMC position the fact that he once “brought back R2.7 million back into the coffers of the City of Tshwane”.
Pretoria News