The newly elected mayor of Limpopo's hung Thabazimbi municipality says it will not be easy to lead the municipality after years of poor administration and political instability.
African National Congress (ANC) member Tumisan Pilane was elected unopposed as mayor at the city's inaugural assembly today.
Three ANC councilors were elected to the mayor's council, as well as one Democratic Alliance (DA) councilor and one Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) councilor.
Mayor Pilane said his priority is to provide quality services to the people.
“It is easy to do so, given that the state party has ignored its commitments to serve communities, diligently wasted time on matters unrelated to service delivery, and continued to operate in vain for years. I don't think so.Despite the ideological differences, there is a high quality service. We are bound to spend sleepless nights as we compete to provide service and leadership to our people. I am a humble servant, serving this council and the people of Sabazimbi without fear or favor. I vow to continue to be that way,” Pilane said.
23 Thabazimbi councilors take oath in their first parliamentary session. After that, a chairperson, mayor and committee chairs will be elected. The ANC has 10 seats, the DA has 4 seats, the EFF has 3 seats, the Labor Party and FFplus have 2 seats each, and the MKP and TRA have 1 seat each. #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/S6preUnx3I
— Pimani Baloyi (@PimaniBaloyi) December 12, 2024
Desiree van der Walt, DA constituency leader for the Waterberg region, said she did not contest any position in the interests of the municipality.
“There was no arrangement with the ANC and, as you can see, they contested the positions on their own. It has nothing to do with it. It actually has to do with the difficulties that municipalities are currently facing and we felt that we were not going to participate in the contest at this time,” Van der Walt says.
ANC Limpop provincial secretary Ruben Madadze speaks with DA Waterberg constituency leader Desiree van der Walt ahead of her first parliamentary seat in Thabazimbi. Last week's elections resulted in a hung parliament where political parties must work together to govern #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/14eUrGXq7m
— Pimani Baloyi (@PimaniBaloyi) December 12, 2024
ANC councilor Tumisan Pilane has been elected mayor of Hang Thabazimbi Local Government. The ANC holds 10 of the 23 seats. ANC council members were also voted in as chairperson and leader. The Mayor's Committee also has DA and EFF councilors #sabcnews pic.twitter.com/R1TJFMj3VR
— Pimani Baloyi (@PimaniBaloyi) December 12, 2024
