Read more
Newly elected Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink announces his mayoral committee
Brink says stabilising the city’s finances will be his administration's top priority.
City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality Executive Mayor Cilliers Brink speaks to media ahead of an election for the Mayor of Tshwane, 22 March 2023. Picture: Neil McCartney / The Citizen
The newly elected executive mayor of the City of Tshwane, Cilliers Brink, has announced his new 10-member mayoral committee (MMCs).
He made the announcement on Friday morning, during a press conference in the Capital City.
New Tshwane mayor
Brink, a Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor, was elected the metro’s mayor on Tuesday, during a special council meeting at Tshwane House.
ALSO READ: DA’s Cilliers Brink elected as City of Tshwane mayor
The MMCs are from different political parties in the DA-led multiparty coalition government. They include five DA councillors, two ActionSA councillors, two councillors from the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) and one councillor from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
Financial recovery plan
Brink said stabilising the city’s finances will be his administration’s top priority due to the damning auditor-general (AG) report, which found over R10 billion in irregular expenditure under former DA mayor Randall Williams.
“We have to get control of the finances of the city. We’ve got to devise a financial recovery plan that not only addresses the concerns of the Auditor General but also addresses much deeper laying concerns about Tshwane’s financial situation,” said Brink.
RELATED: Auditor-general flags ‘serious irregularities’ in City of Tshwane’s finances
The new mayor said all the MMCs will be subjected to performance assessments in order to ensure that they deliver on their mandates.
“Each of the MMCs will be required not just to read the reports in the mayoral committee, but to scrutinise them in detail and to ask the tough questions. We will devise a proper set of performance appraisals.”
Load shedding
Brink said he wanted to reduce the number of unscheduled power outages in Tshwane and make the metro less dependent on Eskom.
“We’re going to improve basic services… we got to secure infrastructure against theft and vandalism.
“Load shedding has done tremendous damage to our service infrastructure. It has prolonged our outages [and] created opportunities for vandals and criminals to hit our infrastructure on a scheduled basis.”
Brink also said he wanted to install a culture of professionalism among the city’s officials, which was among the concerns highlighted by the AG.
“We need a performance management system. It is time to get that in place, otherwise, the city will not be able to get productivity and value for the money people pay in rates, tariffs and charges.”
Below is the list of the City of Tshwane’s MMCs:
- MMC for Corporate and Shared Services: Kingsley Wakelin (DA)
- MMC for Economic Development and Spatial Planning: Alderman Hannes Coetzee (ActionSA)
- MMC for Utilities and Regional Operations: Themba Fosi (DA)
- MMC for Environment and Agriculture: Ziyanda Zwane (IFP)
- MMC for Finance: Alderman Peter Sutton (DA)
- MMC for Roads and Transport: Alderman Katlego Mathebe (DA)
- MMC for Community Safety: Alderman Grandi Theunissen (FF Plus)
- MMC for Social Development: Gift Peggy De Bruin (ActionSA)
- MMC Human Settlements: Ofentse Madzebatela (DA)
- MMC for Health: Rina Marx (FF Plus)
NOW READ: Parties call on new Tshwane mayor to focus on stabilising city finances, service delivery
