Ahead of the election of the Tshwane mayor on Wednesday, the African National Congress (ANC) said it has agreed to support the candidature of the current acting Tshwane Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya, an ActionSA member.

After extensive engagement on the calibre of the candidate and the tight timeframes, the party said its support is based on the strength of her experience and qualifications.

The Tshwane Council is set to elect a new executive mayor, after Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink was removed from office when the ANC and ActionSA joined forces with the Economic Freedom Fighters to vote him out in a motion of no confidence.

The ANC urged Tshwane residents to also support Moya and the new leadership team that it says is putting the capital city on a new path of “better governance, service delivery and inclusive growth.”

ANC national spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri said in the spirit of the Government of National Unity (GNU), the ANC initiated engagements with all parties represented in Tshwane on how the City could collaborate to create political and administrative stability and focus on re-igniting service delivery and inclusive socioeconomic development in the capital city.

She said the ANC had tried to bring on board all the parties to cooperate in forming a functional and inclusive government of local unity in Tshwane, noting that a “Brink-or-nothing” approach would never work.

Bhengu-Motsiri claimed that since the Democratic Alliance (DA) took over Tshwane in 2016, the capital city had experienced a “dramatic and sustained deterioration with regard to governance and service delivery to communities”.

“Eight years of DA-led coalitions and five mayors have achieved nothing other than driving the capital city to the brink of administrative collapse. The City of Tshwane is a shadow of its former self. Across the capital city, service delivery has ground to a standstill. The people in the townships are left to fend for themselves as if there is no local government,” she added.

Bhengu-Motsiri said the ANC would not allow any party to make “unreasonable demands” or dictate terms on the matter of the setting up of the new coalition government in Tshwane.

The ANC had extensively discussed the calibre of the team that should be drawn from different parties to take the capital city on a new path of financial recovery and inclusive service delivery that left no community behind, she said.

The ANC's National Working Committee expressed concerns regarding the financial position of the City and further directed that national and provincial government should take the necessary steps to work with the leadership of the City to stabilise finances and address pressing service delivery issues and stimulate the local economy.

A financial and service delivery recovery plan should be adopted within four weeks, she highlighted.