Party reflections: DA did well in Tshwane under the circumstances – Steenhuisen

As results of the local government elections continued to stream in, some political parties reflected on their governance during their terms of office.

DA leader, John Steenhuisen said his party did a good job in Tshwane “under the circumstances” it found itself in.

Steenhuisen was speaking at the IEC’s results operations centre in Pretoria West, on Tuesday as he briefed members of the media on his party’s progress in the elections.

When Rekord asked the leader if his party had done a good job in Tshwane to get an outright majority he responded: “I think we’ve done as good enough a job as we could under the circumstances. It is very difficult to run a minority government,” he said.

“It is very difficult to run a council when you’re living literally from council meeting to council meeting. It’s very difficult to put a five year plan on the table to it, when you’ve got a minority government running and a provincial government who spend the last five years harassing the DA administration there, placing it under administration, forcing us to go to court to their illegal grab of the municipality ruled unlawful.”

In March last year, the metro was placed under administration by the provincial government, due to political conflict which prevented council from sitting.

The constitutional court earlier ruled the decision to place Tshwane under administration unlawful, reinstating the coalition government back into power.

Steenhuisen said this, and the difficulties faced with coalition partners, had a major impact on the quality of services delivered to the people of Tshwane.

“If we don’t have majority of our own, we will look into forming coalitions,” he said.

“Where coalitions aren’t possible, we are very happy and comfortable for the DA to go onto the opposition benches and be an excellent opposition there just like we are in parliament.”

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He said even though the DA would consider forming coalitions, the party would never again have the EFF as a partner.

“They don’t share the values and principles of the DA.”