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ActionSA has noted the tabling of a motion of no confidence against the Speaker in the City of Tshwane by the Democratic Alliance as a desperate bid to destabilise a city that is starting to demonstrate progress and stability.

It is evident that the fact that Tshwane has entered the first period of stability and progress in many years is a direct threat to the DA, as their poor track record in the City of Tshwane is being exposed daily. In submitting this motion of no confidence, the DA has chosen its narrow political self-interest over progress.

In recent months, the City of Tshwane has tabled a fully funded budget (the first since 2022), had its credit rating outlook improved, decreased its astronomical debt, been identified as the city with the second lowest dissatisfaction levels in the country, and been acknowledged as the safest metro in South Africa. Major projects like Hammanskraal Water are being delivered, investments in electricity and water infrastructure paint a future with fewer outages and stoppages, and cases of corruption and wrongdoing are being acted upon. All of this is clearly too much for the DA to tolerate.

The irony will be lost upon the DA that the Speaker of the City of Tshwane was elected when its 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. The DA never corrected this, and former Mayor 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. It is ironic that the DA has now decided to take issue with the Speaker, where no such issue existed previously.

Earlier this year, ActionSA won a court case in the North Gauteng High Court that established an important precedent that motions of no confidence cannot be refused and may not be presided over by the Speaker. This followed previous motions disallowed by the Speaker in the City of Tshwane which, again ironically, the DA took no issue with at the time.

The DA’s tabling of this motion of no confidence is an act of desperation designed to destabilise a government that is showing clear signs of a turnaround after years of failed government. It should be rejected by residents of Tshwane, and Gauteng more broadly, as an act of insecurity by a party that has no answers to the service delivery needs of the residents of this province.

ActionSA has no doubt that when the motion is tabled in council, the DA will stand alone, by itself, in a fitting display of how the party has isolated itself through its legacy of bad governance, financial mismanagement and service delivery failure.

Issued by ActionSA National Chairperson Michael Beaumont