DA confident of mayoral victory in Tshwane

The party briefed the media on Thursday following last month’s ruling in the High Court in Pretoria, which declared the dissolution of the council unlawful. 

DA mayoral candidate Randall Williams said he is confident that the party will be back at the helm.

“We are the majority party, the biggest party in the City of Tshwane. Currently we are the only party with a mayoral candidate. To date, the other parties have not indicated whether they would be putting up their own mayoral candidate. 

“They are entitled to do that even in the council meeting. But we are united as the DA and we believe that our mayoral candidate will stand the best chance of being elected as things stand.”

 The council is expected to meet this coming weekend to vote for a new mayor and municipal manager.

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The city has been without a mayor since the resignation of Stevens Mokgalapa in February. 

The African National Congress (ANC) has also previously said that it is ready to lead the capital city, while the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have made the mayoral chain a prerequisite to any coalition negotiations with the ANC and the DA. 

However, the DA’s Gauteng chair Mike Moriarty believes the old arrangement with the EFF may just remain in place. 

“As far as the EFF is concerned, is that we’ve never had a marriage, but had an engagement with them that we would consult and negotiate particularly over the things like the budget where they would support the key issues. The indications that we have so far is that those would be resumed. A similar offer is also there for the ANC.”