Democratic Alliance (DA) Federal Chairperson, Helen Zille has blamed Gauteng Premier, Panyaza Lesufi for derailing talks with the African National Congress (ANC) to stabilise metropolitan municipalities across the country.
Zille was speaking ahead of the announcement for the new Mayoral Committee for the City of Tshwane, following the election of ActionSA’s Dr Nasiphi Moya as the new mayor.
The announcement is set for 4pm this afternoon.
The DA’s Cilliers Brink was ousted as mayor through a motion of no confidence, two weeks ago.
Zille says Lesufi’s decision went against the direction of the national ANC.
“The national ANC was moving in the direction of getting stability agreements for the metros and that can only be done with the DA. We were already far advanced with Ekurhuleni and Nelson Mandela Bay and eThekwini. And in various other places, we were in discussions about stability but we said it depends on Tshwane. The ANC can’t have it all its own way. Having stability agreements with the DA means that they give something and we give something. We said Cilliers Brink stays in Tshwane. Obviously Panyaza Lesufi didn’t want to do that and it had nothing to do with poor service delivery.”
Tshwane Council | ANC briefing on its support for ActionSA’s mayoral candidate:
Meanwhile, Zille has argued that the DA is in coalition with the ANC. The DA is part of the country’ s government of national unity (GNU). Zille says the current government is not a GNU as it would need to include the EFF and the MK party.
“We call it a government of national unity but if it was really a government of national unity it would have to include the EFF and MK, which it does not. Technically in terms of the proper definition of the word, its not a government of national unity ’cause it would have to include the EFF and MK to be one. The point is to have coalition means that if you are a partner in the coalition and you walk away, you bring down the government. How many parties can do that in the current government? 2 and then look at the definitions and then see.”
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