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Tshwane gets a new mayor - Cope’s Makwarela - as seething multiparty coalition urgently seeks answers

Tshwane gets a new mayor - Cope’s Makwarela - as seething multiparty coalition urgently seeks answers
Dr Murunwa Makwarela of COPE celebrates with ANC and EFF members after he was elected as the new Executive Mayor of Tshwane at the special council meeting on February 28, 2023 in Pretoria, South Africa. It is reported that Dr Murunwa Makwarela of COPE defeated Cilliers Brink of DA with 112 to 101 votes. (Photo by Gallo Images/Beeld/Deaan Vivier)
Suné Payne
By Suné Payne
1 Mar 2023
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The capital city has a new mayor — Murunwa Makwarela who comes from the Congress of the People. Despite a multiparty coalition agreeing on the DA’s candidate, Cilliers Brink fell short. Now, in a city governed by a councillor from a party who received 0.19% of the votes, the multiparty coalition is trying to find out who voted for Makwarela. 

Murunwa Makwarela will start his first day in office as mayor of Tshwane on 1 March following his election during a council sitting, where he won 112 votes against former DA MP Cilliers Brink. 

Makwarela was the Speaker of the council until his election as mayor. He and his political party Cope were part of a multiparty coalition government in the capital city, along with parties such as the Democratic Alliance, Freedom Front Plus, ActionSA and the African Christian Democratic Party.

However, during a council sitting to elect a new mayor on Tuesday 28 February, Makwarela received 112 votes against 101 received by the DA’s Brink, who resigned from Parliament as an MP to take up a seat in the council. The vote was held via secret ballot. 

With Makwarela’s election, Tshwane is governed by a party that only received 0.19% of the votes during the 2021 municipal election. 

Dr Murunwa Makwarela of COPE celebrates with ANC and EFF members after he was elected as the new Executive Mayor of Tshwane at the special council meeting on February 28, 2023 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Gallo Images/Beeld/Deaan Vivier)


Randall Williams’ resignation


In February, Tshwane mayor Randall Williams resigned from office after being at the centre of a R26-billion tender in which he was alleged to be involved. He had previously faced a motion of no confidence by the ANC in 2022 — which failed. Daily Maverick learned that another motion of no confidence was looming but Williams quit before it could be tabled. 

Read in Daily Maverick: “Tshwane mayor Randall Williams steps down, thus avoiding another motion of no confidence”

With Williams’ resignation, a new mayor had to be found. While the multiparty coalition agreed on Brink — a former Tshwane councillor and DA regional chairperson of Gauteng North — the ANC did not field an alternative candidate. Good party councillor Sarah Mabotsa said she would vote for Brink “because the last thing Tshwane needs is the kind of political manipulation and instability that led to the appointment of a lame-duck, or “placeholder”, mayor in Johannesburg”. 

During Tuesday’s council sitting, the African Transformation Movement nominated Makwarela to become mayor against Brink. 

In the end, Makwarela received 112 votes against Brinks’s 102. 

Now, the multiparty coalition is fuming and trying to find who voted for Makwarela instead of Brink. 





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Brink told reporters after the sitting he would remain as a councillor in a bid to identify the councillors who voted for Makwarela. 



In a statement, the multiparty coalition said it held a majority since 2021 and continued to hold a majority. 

“As has become standard with the ANC and EFF, it is clear that some councillors from within the coalition were induced to break ties with the coalition and support Makwarela”, the statement read. 

The coalition said it condemned councillors who accepted the election on the party’s campaigning for change “only to assist the ANC and EFF to get elected against the will of the residents of Tshwane”. 

The parties will now work to identify the councillors who voted against Brink. “These councillors will be removed and replaced with urgency ahead of a motion of no confidence that will be tabled to remove Makwarela from his ill-gotten office,” said the statement issued by Freedom Front Plus MP Cornè Mulder on behalf of the coalition. 

Latest loss for the DA in Gauteng 

This is the latest loss from the DA in Gauteng — with the removal of Mpho Phalatse as City of Johannesburg mayor in January.  Also in danger of losing her job is Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell, as there are indications of another motion of no confidence against her. DM

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