DA in Gauteng calls for national GNU partner intervention in wake of ousting of Cilliers Brink

27 Sep 2024

The DA in Gauteng says there should be an attempt by the national structures of the party and the ANC to intervene in the ongoing agitation that has stopped the two parties from working together in the province. This comes after the ANC chose to work with the EFF and ActionSA instead of the DA in the City of Tshwane, which led to the ousting of Cilliers Brink as the executive mayor.

The DA Gauteng says that negotiations with the ANC regarding the City of Tshwane were going according to plan, and it could not understand why it chose to work with the EFF and ActionSA instead.

This saw the ousting of DA Executive Mayor in the City, Cilliers Brink, on Thursday afternoon.

Speaking at a briefing in Pretoria on Friday morning, DA leader in the province Solly Msimanga explained that there was no breakdown in negotiations between the two parties. The DA had requested that the motion against Brink be withdrawn to allow for further negotiations to take place.

However there was continued bad blood, which was making it hard for the ANC’s provincial structure, led by Panyaza Lesufi, to work with the DA.

“At a national level we had a very cordial engagement and it looked and sounded at some point as if we were getting somewhere. There has never really been a breakdown. We were looking at a number of modalities, there was an agreement to leave Tshwane as is and have a confidence and supply model. I cannot say there was a dealbreaker,” Msimanga said.

Where it all started

After elections the two parties had decided to join forces and form a Government of National Unity alongside smaller parties. The parties also felt the formation should trickle down to provincial and local level. This has not been the case in Gauteng, where the two parties were at loggerheads.

After being unable to iron out their differences, the ANC opted for a minority government. Msimanga wants the DA’s national leadership to intervene in the matter.

He called for a meeting between the national leaders of the two parties.

“There is a conversation that has to take place, and I am not sure if it has taken place. We have said that we cannot continue to have a situation where we on our end show good faith, we say we are going to do it.

“We said we are going to support in KwaZulu-Natal and we said we will support at a national level, and we have not flinched even when there were things we were not agreeing with. It cannot be met with hostility, and it is a conversation we have asked our leader to have with the national leadership of the ANC,” he reiterated.

Msimanga explained what went wrong between the DA and the ANC during Government of Provincial Unity talks months ago.

“At a national level, there was an agreement and principles which had been agreed upon. There were issues of proportionality and dealing with disputes, and there was also a further issue in terms of having a national dialogue.

“In KZN this was embraced by all political parties. In Gauteng that was met with hostility because I do not think Panyaza and (ANC Gauteng Provincial Secretary) TK (Nciza) have grasped that they did not win the elections. They were willing to risk it all and say they will have a minority government, having the EFF support them in the background,” he said.

Brink booted out, who is next?

The council sitting on Thursday, 26 September 2024, in the City of Tshwane saw Brink voted out by 120 councillors, while 87 voted against the motion of no confidence against him, and one member abstained.

The ANC, EFF and ActionSA occupy 117 seats in the council and were further supported by Good, the African Independent Congress and Defenders of the People.

The City has 14 days to elect a new mayor.

Msimanga says the party will field Brink as their mayoral candidate yet again.

“What we have said as the DA is that there is capable leadership that has shown that it’s got what to do to get the work done. So, there is no need to change this, we would field Cilliers Brink,” he said.

ActionSA has endorsed the City’s former deputy mayor, Nasiphi Moya, to take over the reins, while the ANC has been mum about its potential candidate.

Daily Maverick poll

In an overnight poll conducted by Daily Maverick, 300 out of 328 respondents believed that ActionSA’s decision to switch strategy and work with the ANC instead of the DA was undesirable. Only 26 of those who did the survey disclosed that they were ActionSA supporters, while 267 claimed to not be supporters of the party. DM

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Where it all started

Brink booted out, who is next?

Daily Maverick poll