The DA’s Randall Williams has been elected mayor of Tshwane, giving the capital city a leader after eight months of legal and political infighting.
Williams’s election on Friday afternoon was a significant boost for the party, which will be holding its elective conference this weekend.
His election also came days after the Supreme Court of Appeal upheld an order by the high court, which ordered the city to immediately implement an earlier judgment that reviewed and set aside a decision to dissolve the council and place it under administration.
DA leader John Steenhuisen said in a statement that Williams's election was a vital step in putting Tshwane back on the right track under a “competent DA-administration”.
“I am delighted that we can now carry out the mandate of the voters in our nation’s capital to bring the change its residents so deserve,” Steenhuisen said.
Steenhuisen said the City of Tshwane had gone down a path of regression and deterioration as services stagnated.
“Today, the people of Tshwane can rest assured that good, clean and effective DA governance is back in town. Today we begin the hard work of bringing stability and service back to our nation’s capital. Today we set things right,” Steenhuisen said.
He said Williams would focus on fixing and perfecting basic and essential service delivery, and laying down the foundations for a strong and capable administration to best serve and provide for the city and its residents.
Williams’s election comes about eight months after Stevens Mokgalapa resigned from the post in the wake of a sex scandal. Mokgalapa was elected mayor after Solly Msimanga resigned to run as the DA’s Gauteng premier candidate ahead of the 2019 general election.
After Mokgalapa resigned as mayor, the council was unable to elect a mayor and the city was placed under administration by the provincial government about a month later. No party has an outright majority in the council.
That decision by the Gauteng government to place the city under administration was reviewed and set aside by the high court. The provincial government has since lodged an appeal with the Constitutional Court.
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