The DA has quashed speculation that City of Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink will be deployed to either Parliament or Gauteng legislature after the general elections on May 29.
This was despite Brink getting the nod to represent the party as either MP or Gauteng MPL following the DA’s candidate selection process by its federal council chairperson Helen Zille.
This week, Brink announced his decision to stay put at the helm of the municipality after the election to “finish what we started”.
“Big announcement. I’m staying on as mayor of Tshwane. To finish what we started as a coalition: restore the finances, build energy independence and improve services.
“In the face of cadres, tenderpreneurs, and everyone else who would prefer Joburg-like leadership in Tshwane,” Brink said on X.
Brink, who resigned as MP last year, assumed the mayoral position in March last year to succeed former Congress of the People’s councillor Dr Murunwa Makwarela.
Makwarela resigned on March 10 after it was found that he had submitted a fake insolvency rehabilitation certificate to city manager Johann Mettler in an attempt to be reinstated as mayor.
He had been disqualified as a councillor following the news that the Gauteng High Court, in Pretoria, declared him insolvent in 2016.
Gauteng DA leader Solly Msimanga confirmed that Brink will not take up a seat as MP or MPL despite participating in the party’s candidate selection process.
He said Brink was only exercising “his right as a party member” by taking part in the candidate selection process.
“Brink has made it clear that he regards the stability of the Tshwane multi-party coalition of critical importance, not just for the capital city, but for the country,” he said.
He said Brink resigned as MP to “clean out the mess left by decades of ANC cadre deployment and systemic corruption, and to build something better in its place”.
“In the past year, the Tshwane multi-party charter has recruited a new team of senior managers, taken steps to enable private energy generation and improved the city’s audit outcome. A great deal of work still has to be done but Brink is committed to the standards attained by DA majority governments,” Msimanga said.
Tshwane coalition, Msimanga said, did not have a working majority between 2016 and 2021, a situation which, he said “enabled the ANC Gauteng government to grab power in 2020 through the back door”.
“The City and the coalition need strong and stable leadership. We welcome Brink’s decision and support him in continuing his rescue mission in the capital city,” he said.
Pretoria News