Ahead of Thursday’s Democratic Alliance-sponsored motion of no confidence against City of Tshwane Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana, ActionSA is urging councillors to reject the motion, calling it a bad-faith effort to upend a working government.

Earlier this month the DA resolved to bring a motion against Ndzwanana, arguing that since 2023, Tshwane’s Council Chamber had been “subjected to the tyranny of a Speaker of Council who runs it like a dictator, who views councillors as his subjects.”

DA Tshwane caucus Chief Whip Ofentse Madzebatela accused Ndzwanana of making his rulings based on emotion, and not on the rules of Council.     

However, ActionSA Gauteng provincial chairperson Funzi Ngobeni said the DA’s motion was a “desperate and transparent” attempt to destabilise another coalition government that is making progress and shows stability.      

“This motion is not about principle; it is about fear. Fear of a coalition that is delivering. Fear of exposure. Fear of becoming irrelevant to a public that is starting to see what good governance can look like,” Ngobeni said.                        

He said that over the past several months, the coalition government in Tshwane hasd turned the corner.

“…under our shared leadership, the City has passed its first fully funded budget since 2022, achieved a credit rating outlook improvement, begun paying down inherited debt, and received national recognition as the metro with the second-lowest dissatisfaction levels in the country. These are not abstract metrics but reflect real improvements in the lives of residents and a government finally committed to delivery,” he pointed out.

He called the DA’s motion a selfish act of political self-preservation, noting that the Speaker was elected when the DA’s own councillors voted in breach of the coalition agreement previously in place and caused the election of this Speaker over the ActionSA candidate at the time.

He said the DA never corrected this, and former Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink governed with the current Speaker in place instead of working with their own coalition partner at the time to elect a Speaker from its ranks.

“Only now, as the City shows real progress under a renewed coalition mandate, does the DA raise objections, revealing the opportunism that has come to define their conduct,” said Ngobeni.