The wife of the controversial Truman Prince has been inaugurated as Beaufort West’s new mayor on Monday.
Weekend Argus last week exclusively reported that Thershia Prince’s election was imminent.
The Patriotic Alliance’s (PA) Thershia now dons the mayoral chain that once belonged to her controversial husband who instead wears a chicken foot talisman for protection.
Truman, who left the ANC for the PA, had previously occupied the mayoral position in the beleaguered municipality on numerous occasions.
Thershia replaced Gideon Pietersen who resigned last week Tuesday, Weekend Argus first reported.
Pietersen now fills Thershia’s former position as deputy mayor of the Central Karoo District municipality.
ANC Central Karoo region secretary Windy Plaatjies confirmed that Thershia is the new mayor for the cash strapped municipality.
Thershia said she became interested in politics while working as a personal assistant in the Beaufort West municipality’s engineering department. But became enthralled with the dynamics of power while working as her husband’s assistant when he served as mayor on two occasions.
“It is common cause that when you work for any municipality, you will get connected to politics – irrespective of the political party in charge. And being the PA of the executive mayor, you render a service on a daily basis to the people,” she said.
“My love of bettering the circumstances of our people has always been there, way before I got into politics. And when you are the PA of the mayor, you assist people with bread and butter issues on a daily basis, and you become a spokesperson for people.
“Truman and I connected through our mutual love for people. While he may come across as stern, he actually has a soft heart.
“We met in 2003, and we have been together for 20 years now. We have two daughters, one is nine, and the other is 12-years-old. We got married in 2019, but we got engaged way back in 2015.
“I’m the introvert, he is the talker, and I’m the one who applies their mind before speaking, while he can talk to people for hours.”
While Thershia wouldn’t be drawn into stating why she and her husband left the ANC, she said they believed the PA held similar values to theirs as a couple.
Weekend Argus.