Pretoria - The man poised to become the next mayor of Tshwane said he was “not a messiah coming with the golden book of recipes of solutions” for every problem in the trouble-torn metro.
In an exclusive interview with the the Pretoria News, DA mayoral candidate Randall Williams vowed he would take a different approach to service delivery should he be elected mayor by council on Thursday.
Unlike outgoing mayor Stevens Mokgalapa, he said he would not project himself as “Mr Service Delivery” and in so doing risk working in isolation.
Instead, Williams said he saw himself as a team player, a characteristic he believed would set his captaincy apart from that of Mokgalapa's.
“The current mayor’s position was that he was ‘Mr Service Delivery’. My approach is that I am not the messiah.
“I am not coming with the golden book of recipes that will have solutions for every problem. What I am good at is harnessing the power of teams and getting people to work together,” he said.
Mokgalapa resigned following the widely publicised sex scandal with former MMC for roads and transport Sheila Senkubuge. He will serve his last day on Wednesday, after which he becomes a PR councillor for the DA in council.
Williams served under former mayor Solly Msimanga as the MMC for economic development and spatial planning, but was dumped by Mokgalapa when he assumed office last year.
He said he believed the reason for being left out of Mokgalapa’s executive team had nothing to do with his capability; he was sacrificed because Mokgalapa wanted to “make space for his people”.
“A number of his MMCs are from the same region where he was born maybe he was more comfortable working with people who came from the same region.”
Williams said huge strides were made to advance service delivery under Msimanga’s administration.
For example, he cited that big efforts were made to win over the majority of officials known to be ANC members to support the DA’s policies.
There was an establishment of the weekly “war rooms” initiative to check performances of regions in meeting service delivery objectives. “More than 90% of the street lights were working."
According to Williams, services started taking a knock due to instability caused by a frosty relationship between Msimanga and former city manager Dr Moeketsi Mosola.
Under Mokgalapa, the City continued to face a different type of instability.
“The instability between the governing party and the two main opposition parties has negatively impacted on service delivery,” Williams said.
He expressed confidence that he was the right man to turn the tide for the City. “I think I have the leadership ability to take the City forward and to lead the City. I previously had two positions - I was MMC for economic development and spatial planning and I was leader of executive business.”
He used to head all seven regions and they reported to him. “That is the face of government business because the regional operational centre is the coalface of service delivery; fixing street lights, fixing potholes, cutting grass and maintaining infrastructure.”
Williams said those type of basic services had been lacking for some time because of the prevailing political instability. He refuted claims that he was the face of a white caucus within the DA, saying he was not aligned to factions. “I don’t allow myself to buy into factionalism. The moment you buy into factionalism, you buy into a system of seeking interest because when people join factions, they join factions around personal interest.”
He said he was aware he was not made a mayoral candidate on a secured ticket for the position. “There is no secured ticket. However, we are the biggest party in council. With our alliance partners we have 99 seats, the ANC has 87 seats and the EFF has 25 seats.”
His party and its alliance stood a chance to emerge victorious if the recent public utterance by Premier David Makhura, also ANC chairperson in the province, that his party’s councillors would not vote for an EFF mayor was anything to go by. The EFF had said it wanted the mayoral post, and had several times tried to oust the DA through motions of no confidence in Mokgalala, speaker Katlego Mathebe, acting speaker Zweli Khumalo and chair of chairs Gert Pretorius.
“As things stand there is no agreement between the ANC and EFF. I think we stand a chance,” Williams said. It is not yet known if the ANC and the EFF will field candidates for the mayoral position.