DA Mayor Cilliers Brink gets cautious nod from opposition
Tshwane residents got a new mayor this week after being left in limbo for more than a month while factional politics played havoc in council. And for now at least, it seems he will be left to do his job.
There is hope that the City of Tshwane may return to a semblance of stability after a riotous period of almost 45 days of uncertainty and mayhem. It started with the resignation of former mayor Randall Williams on 13 February and was followed by the dramatic election of Dr Murunwa Makwarela, who then had to resign.
DA councillor and former MP Cilliers Brink (35) has now assumed the mayoral position with a promise of a clean, effective and corruption-free administration. He was elected on Tuesday, 28 March, beating Ofentse Moalusi of the Congress of the People (Cope) by 109 votes to 102.
Brink, a law graduate from the University of Pretoria, was born on the East Rand in Gauteng but grew up in Phalaborwa in Limpopo. His political career started when he was elected a Tshwane councillor in 2012. In 2016, he became a member of the mayoral committee, as the MMC for corporate and shared services.
In 2019, he was deployed to Parliament as the DA’s deputy national spokesperson on cooperative governance and traditional affairs. In 2020, he became its national spokesperson in the same portfolio and served until he returned to Tshwane politics after Williams’s resignation.
No easy road
However, Brink’s rise to the position of mayor has not been easy: he was beaten to the post by Makwarela on 28 February, and was also blamed for the DA-led coalition’s loss of the Tshwane Speaker’s position on 14 March.
In a strategy Brink and other DA leaders in the City crafted, DA councillors were assigned individual numbers, which they were instructed to use on their ballot papers when voting for the Speaker.
It backfired when the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) disqualified the ballots. It was apparent that the numbered ballots were aimed at revealing which way the DA councillors voted.
This is against the rules and regulations of a secret, free and fair election, according to the IEC.
Mncedi Ndzwanana was voted the new Speaker during an evening that proved disastrous for Brink and the coalition.
Unfazed by these setbacks, Brink vowed to stay on as a DA councillor and fight for the mayoral position, despite rumours that he would return to Parliament.
Time to get ‘serious’
In his acceptance speech in council on Tuesday night, Brink said: “We want to build a capital city that works for its people, one that improves the lives of the poor and creates opportunities for all people to move up in life. I have sat in the opposition benches before, and I know the difference between a mayor who respects the opposition and debate and one who treats all politics as if it were war.
“There will be time for battle, but there also has to be time for serious deliberation, for earnest debate, for empathy and for cooperation.
“Each of us, no matter how politically warm-blooded we are, must love our city and our country more than we dislike each other,” said Brink.
On Wednesday, Gauteng DA leader and former Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga described Brink’s election as a great opportunity to refocus City governance on service delivery to the residents.
“Mr Brink now leads the City’s multiparty coalition government and we, like our coalition partners, have full confidence in his ability to deliver on the promise of clean and compassionate governance,” he said.
Parachutes and reservations
Meanwhile, Cope Tshwane spokesperson Mpho Brian Mkhono told Daily Maverick that his party had congratulated Brink with reservations. “Experience has taught us that in the last seven years no DA mayor has finished a term in office. We hope that Cilliers Brink will prove us wrong and finish his term of office.”
About Moalusi, Cope’s defeated candidate, Mkhono said that he was a “parachuted candidate” who is not a resident of Tshwane but lives in Johannesburg.
Mkhono added that Moalusi had been foisted on the residents of Tshwane by Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota and City of Joburg Speaker Colleen Makhubele.
The ANC’s Tshwane regional secretary, George Matjila, told Daily Maverick that the party was satisfied that the mayoral contest was done and dusted, and that the focus would now be on service delivery.
“We have given the DA-led coalition a list of five priorities, which are to resolve the water crisis in Hammanskraal and Bronkhorstpruit; relocate the people of Mamelodi who live in floodline areas; resume waste collection in the townships of Tshwane; fill potholes and maintain parks; and fix streetlights and stabilise the City’s finances.
“We congratulate Brink on his election, but we are certainly going to hold him accountable,” Matjila added.