Tshwane’s new mayor courts controversy and makes some progress in first three months on the job

It has been three months since ActionSA’s Dr Nasiphi Moya took over the capital city as the first resident, the executive mayor.

When she took office on 24 October 2024, there were high expectations because of her age (36), extensive local government experience and qualifications (a PhD in political science) — qualities that set her apart, especially given the city’s revolving door of mayors.

A month later, she courted controversy by declaring that spaza shops should be owned only by South Africans and not foreign nationals. This was in response to the food poisoning deaths of several children, allegedly caused by contaminated products bought at spaza shops.

She initiated crackdowns aimed at shutting down spaza shops and senior government officials cautioned that she had been “bordering on being unconstitutional” in her approach to undocumented migrants.

Her response was: “Well, I have got 22.8% of people living below the poverty line, if your Constitution can help me with that, but don’t tell me not to do my job.”

Moya is unapologetic about her stance and will continue with the operations to close foreign-owned spaza shops and have them reserved for locals as the capital city battles a high unemployment rate.

On 9 January, the city launched the “Reclaim our City” bylaw enforcement operation which saw several spaza shops shut down because of a lack of health and environmental compliance.

The operation also uncovered several unregistered businesses, including a car dealership illegally selling items like fridges and an ambulance.

“The city of Tshwane is a crime scene,” said Moya.

On most days, the Pretoria CBD is clean, with functioning traffic lights and officers managing traffic congestion. Members of the Tshwane Metropolitan Police Department are visible on most streets, clamping vehicles parked illegally and issuing fines.

Moya’s administration has received many compliments on social media platforms, particularly X, which she uses daily to communicate updates on service delivery concerns, including water and power outages, potholes and compliance with bylaws.

Financial turmoil

While it has made progress in some areas, the city’s finances are still not in order. In the Auditor-General’s report for the 2023/24 financial year, the city received yet another qualified audit opinion, with the AG, Tsakani Maluleke, raising concerns about internal controls and organisational culture.

Read in Daily Maverick: Municipal audit results continue to decline — irregular, wasteful expenditure balloons to R7.4bn

“Additionally, significant weaknesses in internal controls remain prevalent as evidenced by the material misstatement still identified in the financial statement line items,” said the AG.

The city recorded R2.3-billion in irregular expenditure, up from R1.9-billion the previous year, while fruitless and wasteful expenditure remained largely unchanged at R347-million, according to Moneyweb.

DA councillor and finance spokesperson Jacqui Uys said tough action was needed to change the culture of misspending in Tshwane.

“There is no doubt that internal weaknesses, including corruption inside Tshwane’s revenue management division, enable the theft of services to continue undeterred.

“The culture change to which the AG refers will only be achieved if tough action is taken against officials responsible for the misspending of taxpayers’ money,” said Uys.

Residents’ apathy

Another issue giving Moya a headache is the lack of public participation by residents.

“It is a big problem; you cannot have a democratic government where people are not taking part. That keeps me up at night because it means we will forever implement what we think is important and not what the residents are telling us,” she said.

Two weeks ago, Moya kept her promise to be the first person to drink water from the newly completed Phase 1 of the Hammanskraal water project, sourced from the Magalies Klipdrift Water Treatment Plant.

This project saw clean, drinkable water coming out of the taps of Hammanskraal residents, who had been without safe drinking water for two decades.

She gave credit to the national government and the administration of her predecessor, Cilliers Brink, of which she had also been a part.

In a statement, Brink said: “After a delay of three months, and what seems to be confusion on the part of Mayor Moya on water safety tests, the first phase of the Hammanskraal clean water project is finally ready.

“I am proud of the part done by my own coalition government in driving the project to deliver,” said Brink.

Moya said there was still much work to be done and she would only rest after earning the trust of the city’s four million residents.

“I do not get a sense that residents have got to a point where they feel we are there. So we must try very hard to show that we are working, things are happening and we are making progress. So, I understood that the first six months are going to be [busy] like that.” DM