Mayor Cilliers Brink. Picture: Jacques Naude / Independent Newspapers
The streets of Pretoria will next Thursday be painted blue by DA members who are expected to gather outside Tshwane House to picket against a move to oust Mayor Cilliers Brink through a motion of no confidence by the ANC during an ordinary sitting.
Those sympathetic to Brink to stay on as mayor have been urged to put on their blue colours on Thursday as they demonstrate in solidarity with him.
Mayor of uMngeni Local Municipality, Chris Pappas, who was in the city last week, spoke against a move to remove Brink.
He said: “All over the City I have seen trucks collecting refuse; I have seen teams fixing street lights. This is the government that is on the road to recovery. I know that there are people out there that are so hungry for power that they will do anything to destabilise this government.”
He also mobilised people to get behind Brink and the coalition partners willing to make Tshwane a better place.
“With you behind him we can protect this city from going into its clutches and the hands of those who will see it destroyed,” he said.
The call for people to join the picket was made alongside an online petition to stop the motion to remove Brink.
At least 37 212 supporters signed the petition last Friday to stand against any attempt to break up the incumbent governing coalition and bring the EFF into power.
On X, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, who recently announced a decision to break away from the coalition partnership under the DA, said: “I am not sure how this mob is going to participate in voting. Perhaps the DA has introduced a new democratic system in South Africa. Your only chance is to expedite negotiations with the ANC to save you, not a rented crowd.”
Last week, Mashaba came in for criticism from the DA, which accused him of driving his party “into the useful idiots of anti-constitutional forces in South African politics”.
DA national spokesperson, Willie Aucump, said the party would fight to preserve the progress made in Tshwane with coalition partners “to stop Mashaba from delivering the worst possible outcome for the city”.
According to him, Mashaba is banking on a deal with the ANC and the EFF to elect an ActionSA mayor.
“The only way ActionSA’s ploy can work is if its new coalition includes the EFF, enthroning the party of chaos, hate, and violence as kingmakers in a new Tshwane coalition,” he said.
During a Thursday media briefing at Tshwane House, Brink expressed his intention to stay on as the mayor despite the imminent motion against him.
He said he was “determined to continue serving the people of Tshwane, not as the leader of the opposition but as the executive mayor”.
He also criticised Mashaba’s announcements to get rid of a DA mayor in Tshwane, saying it was “immature, irresponsible and deceitful”.
Meanwhile, it also emerged at the weekend that Tshwane security officers and ActionSA will picket in support of the motion on the same day.
Pretoria News
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