According to sources, the ANC and EFF couldn’t establish trust after the former proposed that the only way to coordinate strategies was for the ANC to back its mayoral candidate.
Tshwane council members vote for a new mayor on 30 October 2020. Picture: @DAGauteng/Twitter
JOHANNESBURG – The election of the DA’s Randall Williams as new Tshwane mayor may have resulted from disagreements between the EFF and the ANC.
Eyewitness News understands that despite the EFF and the ANC being in talks on what to do about the resumption of the DA takeover of the city, the two parties failed to reach an agreement.
This saw the ANC choosing to abandon its right to vote in the council, while the 25 EFF councillors went ahead and cast their ballots.
Williams, a veteran politician and attorney, rose to the turbulent post as mayor of the embattled City of Tshwane on Friday.
However, had the EFF and the ANC reached an agreement on how to handle their affairs in council, this may have not materialised.
According to sources, the ANC and EFF could not establish trust after the former proposed that the only way to coordinate strategies was for the ANC to back its mayoral candidate, following which it would appoint ANC councillors as the speaker and members of the mayoral council.
Despite interventions by both parties’ heads, this did not materialise because of the lack of trust.
The DA began governing the Tshwane metro with the backing of the EFF after the indecisive 2016 elections – following which the party abandoned the partnership and formed part of the opposition to the DA’s governance with the ANC – bringing the council to a deadlock.
