Tshwane mayoral candidate Brink sets focus on fixing city’s ailing finances

Following his meeting with coalition partners in Tshwane, on Wednesday, Brink told the media that he will prioritise responding to the City’s undesirable financial status.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) member of parliament has the backing of coalition partners to replace Randall Williams who resigned earlier this month.

The AG published a damning report on the City for the 2021/2022 financial year, revealing irregular expenditure to the tune of R10 billion.

The report found that the metro had misrepresented its financial statements with financial misconduct, poor internal controls, lack of proper management of its assets, and lack of systems to detect irregular expenditure to blame.

Brink vows that, should he become the first citizen of the capital, he will focus on the steps needed to revive Tshwane’s finances – which he says will not compromise service delivery in all communities under the metro.

“The outcome of the AG report is a major disappointment, and that was a shock to our system, and I think it compels all of us to examine what we’ve been doing and how we should improve.”

Perhaps, the difficult decisions have been long delayed or avoided, but now we must face up to it and be candid with the city and residents about the financial situation and what went wrong; about the lack of performance management, all of those things that have been listed in the AG report."

Brink reiterated calls for accountability after Williams announced that the council would lay criminal charges against ex-chief financial officer Umar Banda, in accordance with the Municipal Finance Management Act, for his alleged role in the adverse findings.

While he says that the City’s regional service development appears to be failing, he insisted that any changes made to the employee structure would not be at the expense of service delivery.  

“There are too many officials who are hiding behind corners and in offices. We’ve got seven regions and there is complete confusion about which line department is responsible for servicing a particular area. It’s expensive, enables corruption and mismanagement, and we’d have to look at that structure."

Council Speaker Murunwa Makwarela is under pressure to hold an extraordinary council meeting to elect the new mayor. On Tuesday, Makwarela confirmed he had received a list of signatures from the coalition caucuses calling for the meeting, and that the matter is under consideration.