Tshwane Mayor, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Cilliers Brink says the coalition has its work cut up to improve the living conditions of the people of the city. Brink was voted as mayor earlier this week, defeating Congress of the People (COPE) candidate Ofentse Moalusi.
The position was left vacant after embattled mayor Murunwa Makwerela resigned.
Speaking at the Democratic Alliance ‘s Federal Congress currently taking place in Midrand, Brink says it is important to demonstrate to the people of Tshwane that the coalition works.
“I am in it not to just win one fight but to win several fights. It is important for us to win in Tshwane because it is the one city in Gauteng where we actually have a majority among our coalition partners. We also have a unity of purpose which we maybe did not have in our coalition parties in Joburg, we have obviously failed. So, we have to show that Tshwane works, that the coalition works, so that we can keep the promise that we made to the people of Tshwane in 2021 and build a capital city that works for its entire people.”
Brink says although coalitions are unstable, they are South Africa’s reality.
“We are a very young democracy and we have to understand that we are in a phase right now of the end of the one party dominance. We don’t have a democracy where one dominant party will be replaced by one dominant party; we have to use coalitions in order to fix what was broken for many years. Coalitions are inherently unstable and uncertain and they have a pretty tough job in places like Gauteng.”
Brink says coalitions have a lot of failures to fix, after years of a one party dominance:
