The administrator appointed to turn around the City of Tshwane says his
immediate priority is to restore governance in the capital.

Mpho Nawa said they needed to hit the ground running.

Gauteng cooperative governance MEC Lebogang Maile announced the name of the administrator in Pretoria yesterday.

Nawa, the chief director in Maile's department, is now leading a 10-member team which includes Mavela Dlamini (City of Johannesburg's former manager), who took over as acting municipal manager with immediate effect yesterday.

"First thing we need to do is to restore governance... we are to literally concentrate on service delivery," Nawa said.

"This is a mega city, it's the capital city, we really need to treat it as such."

Maile said the team's "key scope of work" included developing a turnaround strategy, and implementing a system to control and approve expenditure, among others.

"The team we are announcing today should be aware that the expectations of the people of Tshwane are high and they should not disappoint in executing their mandate," Maile said.

When asked about the likelihood of elections happening within 90 days due to the coronavirus outbreak, Maile said the Independent Electoral Commission has indicated that it's ready to deliver elections in Tshwane within the prescribed period.

"We've met with the IEC already and the IEC has taken us through the process, they are ready.

"We are working on the basis that elections will take place in 90 days because the team is here for 90 days," Maile said.

The law states that once a municipal council is dissolved, polls should take place in 90 days.

On March 4, the Gauteng executive committee took a decision to dissolve council and place the City of Tshwane under administration.

Dlamini said they also needed to immediately understand the full scope of problems in Tshwane.

"A city manager on his own can do very little, what's important is to ensure that things that have been budgeted for have resources.

"Things like the supply of water are non-negotiable," Dlamini said.

Tshwane has been without a mayor, a city manager and an adjusted budget after its council failed to sit on numerous occasions this year, mainly due to walkouts by the EFF and the ANC, who jointly form the majority in council.

The DA has since filed an urgent application in court in an effort to reverse the decision to dissolve council, which it describes as an illegal power grab by the provincial government.