Municipal Focus Volume 55

Page 76

MUNICIPAL

NEWS TSHWANE MAYOR RANDALL WILLIAMS PLANS TO HIT THE GROUND RUNNING BACKED BY A SIGNED COALITION AGREEMENT of Tshwane would largely depend on how political parties represented in council work together.

Executive Mayor: Randall Williams

Fresh from being elected unopposed, returning Tshwane Executive Mayor Randall Williams wants to hit the ground running and quickly turn the capital city around. He believes that the only way to achieve excellence especially in rendering services to the ratepayers

Tshwane is one of the most sought after metros and a strategic municipality as it’s the country’s capital, home to the Union Buildings, the official seat of the SA government. Williams was mayor of the capital for about 12 months during the tail end of the last administration which saw two previous mayors, Solly Msimanga and Stevens Mokgalapa leaving the city before their terms ended. “The result (being elected unopposed) is pleasing for us but it comes with a lot of responsibility. We have a city that is in trouble,” Williams said just a few hours after getting the mayoral chain once again.

Williams said there were important lessons which were learnt in the last five years of governing Tshwane and that those lessons would come in handy for the new administration he will lead. “I believe here in Tshwane we have learnt a lot, political parties have also learnt a lot. In fact in 2016 when we had formal coalition arrangements that in itself was a minority government, that’s what we ran,” Williams said. However, he said after previous council collapses on numerous occasions in 2020 due to walkouts by ANC and EFF councillors, it was now critical that there is a majority government in place tied together by a solid signed agreement going forward. After the 2021 Local Government Election results failed to produce a majority winner in Tshwane, the DA needed both the Freedom Front Plus and the ACDP to be able to cross over the line and win the capital. Williams admitted that it was very difficult to govern in the last

Tshwane is one of the most sought after metros and a strategic municipality as it’s the country’s capital, home to the Union Buildings, the official seat of the SA government. The Nelson Mandela statue on the Union Buildings grounds

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Municipal Focus


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