The Gauteng government will place the City of Tshwane under administration to promote stability and strengthen the municipality’s capacity, MEC for Human Settlements, Urban Planning and Co-operative Governance Lebogang Maile announced after a meeting of the government’s executive committee on Friday.

The provincial government will invoke Section 139(1) of the Constitution, which allows it to take any appropriate steps to help a failing local government meet its obligations.

“We didn’t wake up and decide that we want to invoke Section 139. From day one, since even before 2016, we have been working with the municipality,” said Maile in Johannesburg.

Maile said the city faced serious challenges including the Hammanskraal water crisis, the repeated collapse of council, a “flagrant disregard” of the Municipal Financial Management Act, an increase in unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and the irregular appointment of senior managers.

In a chaotic council meeting on Thursday, the ANC and EFF passed motions of no confidence in speaker Katlego Mathebe and mayor Stevens Mokgalapa, both from the DA. DA Gauteng leader John Moodey said the party would challenge the “unlawful” processes in court. The council has 14 days to elect a new mayor.

Maile said placing Tshwane under administration was not related to the leadership contest in the city.

“We’re not playing politics here. We’re saying it doesn’t matter who is governing there. The issues are of a serious nature; they’ve got out of control. We can’t fold our arms as the provincial government.”

DA Gauteng leader Mike Moriarty said the both the process of placing Tshwane under administration and the reasoning was flawed.

“This is a political move,” said Moriarty.

He believed the ANC did not want the DA to administer the city but the party wasn’t confident in its own regional leader, Kgosi Maepa, so thought it best to place it under administration before the 2021 municipal elections.

Moriarty said Tshwane’s acting municipal had not yet received a notice that the province intended to put the city under administration but when and if it did the DA would probably challenge it in court.

“We intend to challenge it legally. We are absolutely certain this is a fatally flawed process,” he said.

The DA leader disagreed with the reasoning for invoking Section 139 of the Constitution. He said Treasury and ratings agencies have said the city’s finances are stable and services are being delivered.

In November, ratings agency Moody’s said that Tshwane’s credit rating reflects its “improving operating performance, declining debt and steadily rising liquidity” but it was still weaker than its rated SA peers.

EFF Gauteng Chairperson Mandisa Mashego also criticised the provincial government’s move, saying governance and service delivery had worsened in Emfuleni and West Rand since they were placed under administration.

“The ANC is going to drive the Tshwane metro into further dysfunction after two different DA mayoral candidates dismally failed to deliver to townships and poor communities,” said Mashego.

“We are not personally phased by their action but we feel pity for the residents faced with so many challenges including high unemployment and poverty. They are the only victims of the ANC’s inefficiency, incompetence and obsession with holding on to state power not for benefiting the poor African communities of Tshwane,” Mashego said.

Maile said the move was a long time coming. He said the province had repeatedly expressed its concern to Tshwane’s leaders but little had changed. He said Premier David Makhura’s government had also placed Emfuleni and West Rand municipalities under administration, both of which are led by the ANC.

“If we were not principled we would have said it seems the ANC might govern [in Tshwane] therefore lets not [place it under administration]. We could have done that,” said Maile.

Tshwane was the second metropolitan municipality the DA lost this week after the ANC’s Geoff Makhubo was voted in as mayor in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

Maile also condemned the DA’s behaviour in the Johannesburg council, claiming the party refused to accept the result of Thursday’s motion of no confidence vote against speaker Vasco da Gama.

“I want the DA to act responsibly and adhere to democracy,” he said.

Maile said he believes there is currently no speaker in the Johannesburg council after 135 councillors in the 270 seat chamber voted in favour of the motion against Da Gama.

With one Johannesburg councillor position to be filled after a recent death and the EFF’s 30 members abstaining, Maile said the ANC-led coalition had won a clear majority of members who voted.

Da Gama recently obtained a legal opinion on the meaning of “majority” in council elections, which Maile said the DA had ignored in relation to Da Gama. The opinion said a majority is determined by 50% plus one of the votes cast rather than available votes.

The ANC plans to go to court to challenge the vote and Maile said the provincial government will ask the Constitutional Court for a declaratory order on what constitutes a majority in local councils.

No single party won an outright majority in many municipalities across the country in the 2016 municipal elections, which has led to multiple leadership changes, such as in Nelson Mandela Bay where Mongameli Bobani was removed as mayor on Thursday, and negatively impacted service delivery.

The Gauteng government wants to sponsor new legislation in the National Council of Provinces to regulate coalition arrangements and improve stability.

Maile explained: “In so doing, we will bring stability to municipal governance in a coalition arrangement by removing the opportunity for political opportunism whereby parties without a popular mandate from the people collapse governance and bring instability within municipalities through opportunistic motions of no confidence that are not in the interests of advancing service delivery, but rather for the furtherance of narrow partisan interests.”

He did not elaborate on what regulations might help stabilise coalitions but said while coalitions are common in healthy democracies measures needed to be introduced to tighten accountability. DM