Maimane slams race-based alliance in council

Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Mmusi Maimane yesterday condemned plans by political parties in Nelson Mandela Bay in Eastern Cape to form a new coalition against his party’s white mayor.

In a fresh attempt to remove the DA at Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB), its former coalition partners in the city, namely the Economic Freedom Fighters, the United Democratic Movement, African Independent Congress and the Patriotic Alliance, have joined forces for a new bid to remove mayor Athol Trollip through a no confidence motion and form a new coalition government.

This will be the third motion against Trollip in the shaky DAled coalition.

“We can’t be part of a coalition based on race, we can’t get together and say we are doing this because we are black or we are white ... or that we will only deliver for this race and not that race,” Maimane said.

“That is not the SA we want to build. We want to build one country for all,” he told a second-year review in Johannesburg of how DA-led metros in the country have performed.

Maimane said it was clear the opposition parties want to take the metro back to the “corrupt ways of the ANC”, which ran the city until municipal elections in 2016.

The DA had worked hard in the metro by improving services and infrastructure, introducing a bus service and formalising the metro police department for the first time in the history of the city, he added.

“You must then ask what is the purpose of removing a mayor who is working and delivering?

“We can then ask, do we want to return the city back to corruption? Any party in South Africa must recognise that they are elected by the people and for the people,” said Maimane.

The motion would be successful should it go ahead as planned next week as the alliance parties hold a combined 61 of the 120 seats.

The other 59 seats are held by the DA, the Congress of the People and the African Christian Democratic Party.

Maimane was accompanied by Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga and Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba. Trollip was absent as he was in meetings to attract investments and tourism opportunities to Nelson Mandela Bay, said Maimane.

He said the last two years of coalition governments at the metros had not been easy, but that it was a priviledge to serve South Africans.

“I can proudly say the mayors have done an incredible job of delivering for the people, turning municipalities around,” said Maimane.

“When you inherit a government that was corrupt, broken, you require strong leadership to ensure change. The last two years have shown that where the DA governs, lives do become better.” – ANA