The DA has accused the ANC of pulling a coup d’état by placing Tshwane under administration. 

“We are taking this matter under advisement with our attorneys,” said Gauteng DA leader John Moodey.

Premier David Makhura announced on Thursday that his government was placing the city under administration, a move which effectively dissolves the city council. An administrator will be appointed to take over the running of Tshwane.

The municipality has 90 days to organise by-elections for all its wards to elect councillors to form a new government.

But Moodey said the dissolution was supposed to have happened only under exceptional circumstances and it was the ANC that had deliberately collapsed council meetings through walkouts.

“The ANC has been trying to effect a coup d’état in the city. The city is under administration so they can get their hands on that administration process,” he said.

The power grab by the ANC started as early as December last year, when the biggest opposition party in Tshwane staged walkouts to collapse meetings aimed at resolving the leadership impasse there, Moodey said.

He was referring to a meeting meant to table a vote of no confidence in then mayor Stevens Mokgalapa and speaker Katlego Mathebe.  

He said since then all council meetings had collapsed. Moodey said action should have been taken against the ANC councillors for sabotaging council meetings.

At his press conference on Thursday, Makhura denied the action was motivated by politics.

He said the dissolution of council was informed by mismanagement, including “flagrant disregard for the [Municipal Finance Management Act], especially regarding procurement processes, which has eroded good governance in the city, as can be evidenced by the tenders irregularly awarded to Glad Africa and Aurecon.”

Makhura said they were also acting because of irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, which was flagged by the auditor-general.

“The city has been slow in effectively applying consequence management to deal with matters raised by the auditor-general.”

He also cited failure to appoint ward committees, irregular appointment of senior managers and failure to spend conditional grants.