Tshwane council elects DA’s Randall Williams as new mayor

The DA’s Randall Williams is the new Tshwane mayor. Williams won Friday’s mayoral elections with 97 votes out of 123 at the Tshwane metro council chambers in Pretoria.

In his acceptance speech, Williams said he intended to work ‘’exceedingly hard to ensure that this city delivers on its mandate to its residents’’.

He said the last seven months, under the leadership of the administrators, were ‘’incredibly’’ hard for the then out of job Tshwane councillors.

“The decision to dissolve the Tshwane council was disastrous. It removed hard-working and diligent councillors from their elected roles.”

“They were unable to work during one of the most trying times in the country’s history with the spread of Covid-19.’’ Williams said, moving forward, he was going to ensure residents would receive efficient service delivery. ‘’My primary focus will, of course, be on enhancing basic service delivery.”

“I intend to do this by ensuring that I direct significant attention to our frontline services delivery departments, such as the Regional Operations Centre and Utilities.”

“These departments are often responding to many of the core service delivery requirements in our city,’’ he said. “The task before me is clear, it is my duty to ensure that this city delivers quality services to its residents. Services that are reliable and efficient.’’

Williams received 97 votes of the 123 councillors that voted, while the ANC’s 85 councillors abstained from voting in the mayoral elections.

Only one other candidate, the EFF’s MoAfrika Mobongwana, received 25 votes.

None of the parties challenged the results.