Strange bedfellows as Cilliers Brink removed as Tshwane mayor

Former Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink (centre)

There you have it folks! With 120 votes, DA councillor Cilliers Brink was removed as Tshwane executive mayor during a no confidence vote on Thursday (September 26).

While ActionSA has been heavily criticised for the latest turn of events, some have heaped praise on its leader Herman Mashaba for "dethroning" the DA in South Africa's capital city, which it had led via coalitions since 2016.

ActionSA was initially part of the governing coalition in Tshwane but fell out with the DA over a difference of opinion on how the metro should be governed. Among other things, ActionSA accused the DA of prioritising the delivery of municipal services in affluent areas  - Tshwane (formerly Pretoria) has the second-largest number of embassies in the world after Washington D.C. - and neglecting townships where the black majority live.

I recently blogged about what led to ActionSA ditching its coalition partners in Tshwane and electing to throw their lot with the ANC and the far-left EFF. Brink stood no chance against these three political parties as they collectively account for 117 of the council's 214 seats.

With Brink gone and the metro expected to elect a new mayor within 14 days, many questions have been asked about what impact his removal would have on residents as far as delivery of municipal services is concerned. 

Political analysts have opined that Mashaba's decision to support the ANC-sponsored motion of no confidence against Brink could cost his party votes in the upcoming municipal elections in two years' time. The ANC and ActionSA are strange bedfellows. Mashaba has previously criticised "ANC corruption" in government.

In a media statement in June, ActionSA MP Athol Trollip wrote: "Fundamentally, ActionSA believes that a corruption-free and prosperous South Africa is incompatible with the ANC, and any attempt to sell the half-baked renewal of the ANC by diluting their patronage through a so-called Government of National Unity is an affront to the intelligence of South Africans."

It does look like getting the ANC and ActionSA to agree on a common programme of action going is going to be tough going forward, seeing they already can't agree on who the next mayor of Tshwane should be.

This despite Mashaba telling journalists moments after Brink had been removed that the ANC was amenable to his proposal for ActionSA councillor Dr Nasiphi Moya to succeed Brink. Moya was the metro's deputy mayor during Brink's term in office.

It was reported on Friday that the ANC, after all, would like to field its own candidate for the mayoral position. Ultimately, if the ANC and ActionSA do not agree on who the first citizen of the metro should be, I foresee Mashaba telling party councillors to make themselves comfortable on opposition benches. At least for the next two years.

Because politics is a game of numbers, it is worth noting that in the 2021 local government elections, the ANC received 34% of votes, followed by DA (32%), EFF (10%) and ActionSA (8%), which translated to 19 seats in council. And if the outrage against Mashaba, who served as mayor of Johannesburg from 2016 to 2019, is sustained then ActionSA would be lucky to even get 10 seats in the 2026 poll.