Pretoria - DA Gauteng premier candidate Solly Msimanga has dismissed suggestions that his fall-out with City Manager Dr Moeketsi Mosola has anything to do with his surprise resignation as the City of Tshwane's executive mayor.
The duo have been at each other's throats over the GladAfrica scandal, fuelled by the project management tender controversially awarded to an engineering company called GladAfrica in November 2017.
Msimanga said his resignation, which will take effect in February, was motivated by the need to focus on the party's electioneering campaign in the province.
Addressing journalists during a media briefing he said: "My resignation will be finalised within the first two weeks of February.
Up until the last hour, I will continue serving the people of Tshwane and putting their needs first.
DA premiership candidate Solly Msimanga, second right, announces his resignation as the mayor of the City of Tshwane during a media briefing in Johannesburg on Friday. Video: Rapula Moatshe
"This decision was not made lightly or hastily, and I have done so because I believe it best serves the interests of the people of Tshwane, and Gauteng as a whole."
He said he would step down "to focus solely on my role as the DA’s premier candidate for Gauteng".
"Traveling across Gauteng during the past several months, I am heartbroken to see that what the failing ANC did in Tshwane, they have been doing across the province.
"I am angered to see that the ANC has long forgotten its mandate to govern for people but have been focused on self-enrichment instead," he said.
Msimanga said he was proud of his party's record in Tshwane under the DA-led multiparty coalition government.
"We have started to systematically remove the rot that had been festering in the city and placed the delivery of basic services at the forefront of our agenda," he said.