The DA has dampened the EFFs ambition to run Tshwane by reaffirming that they are not looking to hand over the mayorship to the party.
This according to DA leader Mmusi Maimane, who said “the posturing, or the issue that is raised by the EFF, to say they want to govern Tshwane, hasn’t even been put to us.”
He said they would be meeting other opposition leaders “to discuss the question of the EFF”.
“But at this point in time, we have a mayor in Tshwane, who is working to deliver services to the people.
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“We are certainly, from where we stand, not moving out of the city of Tshwane,” said Maimane.
The ANC also came out swinging this past week, throwing a jab at the EFF. ANC spokesperson Bafuze Yabo said “Julius Malema convened the media to outline his plan to take over the City of Tshwane with a measly 11 percent of the vote garnered in the 2016 local government Elections by coercing the DA to hand over the mayoral chain to his ‘Toy Soldiers’.”
“Malema said the city would have a new EFF executive mayor in June.
“Seeing that we are now in the month of June we would like to ask, what happened to those bold plans?”
Yabo questioned whether the EFF would submit a motion of no confidence in current Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa in this month’s council sitting, “or have they done a sudden U-turn as we are accustomed to see from them?”
He said they want to urge the EFF to “go ahead with these bold plans in the next council; we want to see something”.
Throwing another jab, Yabo said the party (EFF) had now become irrelevant in the city of Tshwane.
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“The EFF opposed the budget, including the amendments proposed by the ANC caucus to the disadvantage of the impoverished masses of the people of Tshwane.
“But they failed dismally.”
He said it was now clear that “the EFF is more interested in playing ‘palace politics’ at the expense of our communities and welfare of our people”.
In the last council meeting, EFF Tshwane leader MoAFrika Moabogwana said during the budget debate that they would be governing Tshwane “in the very near future”.
He added that the current mayor “ought to have known that he is just a caretaker in the metro until the elections have passed”.
Malema did not specify who their candidate for mayor would be but said it would definitely be an EFF leader based in the metro.
Incumbent mayor Stevens Mokgalapa told Rekord he intends to remain mayor until 2021.
“I will continue doing my job in service of the people of Tshwane,” said Mokgalapa.
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