
The residents of Tshwane will be going into the by-elections in a few weeks’ time to vote for their new government. The ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the National Council of Provinces just need to give the green light for the elections to take place with the approval of Premier David Makhura’s decision to place the City under administration.
Following Makhura’s decision, the campaigning to woo the voters in the Capital City is already taking shape with all political parties hard at work to be given the mandate to run Tshwane. It has been a roller coaster ride for Tshwane residents in the last past four years. The City has had different mayors, the budgets took long to be passed in the council and as a result of that, service delivery continues to be severely impacted in the majority of townships.
The Tshwane residents will be first to admit that the coalition government has dismally failed them and it is time to give one single party a decisive mandate. The three major parties, the Democratic Alliance (DA), African National Congress (ANC) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have proven that South Africa is not ready for coalition politics. All the three parties have flipped the residents of Tshwane the middle finger in the past few months with their amok stance, which effectively forced Makhura to dissolve the council.
One will hope that the residents of Tshwane have fully learnt that the three parties care a little about their interest, as they all have proven that they’re just in it for power. It is time for every voter in the Capital City to shun all these power-hungry parasites who have abused and violated the rights of the people they are supposed to care for. The DA, which has been running the City through the support of small parties since 2016 has failed to live up to its mantra that of ” running clean and corrupt-free government”.
It was under the DA’s watch that the Glad Africa and Aurecon dodgy deals were signed. Randall Williams, who is the DA’s mayoral candidate sounds clueless on how he will turn around service delivery in the Capital City which continues to be severely impacted. The ANC’s Kgosi Maepa, who has uncontrollable hunger to be the next mayor, cannot claim that his party will change the lives of the Tshwane residents, while it dismally failed for many years while it was in charge of the City.
Instead, the ANC is trying to secure power so that it will be able to be in the right place to steal and abuse state resources ahead of next year’s local government elections. The EFF cannot also claim to be innocent in the mess the City finds itself in. It was the Red Berets who gave the DA a licence to run the City and only changed position when it was no longer serving their own personal power interest. All these parties have failed the poor and marginalized residents of Tshwane and do not deserve to be given power.
It is time for the people to vote for independent candidates. Independent candidates have proven to only care and serve their own constituencies and Tshwane needs such an arrangement. Political parties have failed and they should be rejected in the next by-elections.