ActionSA on Wednesday accused the Democratic Alliance (DA) of acting in desperation to destabilise the Tshwane government with its plan to bring a motion of no confidence against Tshwane Speaker of Council Mncedi Ndzwanana, during the June 26 Council Meeting.

DA Tshwane Caucus Chief Whip Ofentse Madzebatela argued that since 2023, Tshwane’s Council Chamber had been “subjected to the tyranny of a Speaker of Council who runs it like a dictator, who views Councillors as his subjects.”

He accused Ndzwanana of making his rulings based on emotion, and not on the rules of Council.

“Due to this attitude, Councillors cannot participate in meetings as equal peers. His discriminatory behaviour has reached a point where parties outside of the governing coalition do not have a fair say or hearing for that matter, in Council meetings. The speaker has developed a disposition to dismiss all propositions of the DA Caucus, as legally and rationally sound as they may be,” Madzebatela stated.

ActionSA national chairperson Michael Beaumont urged Tshwane residents and, more broadly, Gauteng to reject the motion, calling it an act of “insecurity by a party that has no answers to the service delivery needs of the residents” of Gauteng.

He said Tshwane had entered its first period of stability and progress in many years, which he believed was a direct threat to the DA, arguing that the DA had a poor track record of service delivery in the municipality.

“In submitting this motion of no confidence, the DA has chosen its narrow political self-interest over progress,” Beaumont said.

ActionSA is confident that the DA’s motion will not garner support.

Beaumont said in recent months, the City of Tshwane had tabled a fully funded budget, the first since 2022, had its credit rating outlook improved, decreased its debt, been identified as the city with the second lowest dissatisfaction levels in the country, and had 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,” he said.

Beaumont highlighted that the Speaker of the City of Tshwane was elected when the DA’s 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.

He said the DA never corrected this, and former Tshwane Mayor Cilliers 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,” he noted.