Blue-light ban for Zuma in Tshwane
Mayor lays down the law to president in maiden speech
THE ANC appears set to fight to the last to retain control of Johannesburg after suffering the humiliation of watching a DA mayor installed in the capital, Tshwane, yesterday.
Adding insult to injury, new DA Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga said the city would ban blue-light brigades within the metropolitan area and expected even President Jacob Zuma to abide by this law once it had been implemented.
Back in Johannesburg it may have seemed a hopeless cause after EFF leader Julius Malema said on Thursday his party would vote for Herman Mashaba, the DA mayoral candidate for Johannesburg. But the ANC is understood to be clinging to the hope of a lastminute surprise – as happened in Rustenburg, where the ANC narrowly defeated the combined opposition.
The ANC achieved this minor victory when its Rustenburg mayor, Mpho Khunou, was re-elected with 46 votes against the 43 votes received by Rocky Malebana-Mesting. Chairman of the DA’s federal executive, James Selfe, confirmed Mashaba remained the DA candidate, after the EFF initially requested that he be replaced before it would vote with the DA in Johannesburg.
The Johannesburg council will meet on Monday to elect a speaker and mayor in what is likely to be a tense affair after the first sitting in Tshwane, where the new mayor, Msimanga, was heckled by ANC councillors during his maiden speech after being elected unopposed at the inaugural sitting of the fourth term of council yesterday.
Former Cope councillor, Rachel Katlego Matheba, was elected unopposed as the new Speaker of council, while the DA’s Christo van der Heever was elected as Chief Whip.
Msimanga wasted no time in highlighting changes to be introduced under his watch. “When Zuma comes to the city, we will make sure there are no blue lights anymore,” he said.
He pledged to provide services to all people in Tshwane irrespective of their political affiliation. No one would be appointed to a position because he or she belonged to a particular party, he said. And he warned no more instant millionaires would be created by tenders.
“People of Hammanskraal can look forward to receiving water, sewerage and jobs. More jobs will also be created in Mamelodi, Babelegi and Silverton,” he said.
Msimanga promised to deliver title deeds to those who had been waiting for them, saying the days when city officials would get to their offices and sleep were over.
Msimanga appealed to ANC councillors who heckled and booed him during his speech, not to be bad losers. “This is why you came number two in the election. Humble yourselves,” he told them.
He said the people of Tshwane had decided the direction they wanted their city to take.
Serious council business will start on August 31 at the next sitting.
Meanwhile, in Pietermaritzburg, as the new mayor of the Msunduzi Municipality, Themba Njilo, was being elected, a disgruntled group picketed outside the city hall yesterday, protesting about certain councillors who had been nominated. One of the placards read, “The Zuma lagecy (sic) must fall”.
Njilo told The Independent on Saturday his pledge was to make the youth into millionaires, "Not by tenders, but by business skills and entrepreneurship".