Will somebody, anybody, please save the politicians in the City of Tshwane from themselves.

In so doing they would have spared the citizens of the capital the pain of living in a city administered by people with little or no interest of their well-being at all.

The governance of what has been bragged about as the biggest municipality in Africa, has virtually ground to a halt with service delivery surely to follow since the city council has over the past few months failed to pass budgets or enact bylaws to improve the running of the city or simply keep the engines running.

Yesterday, news broke that premier David Makhura has put the municipality under administration. That in making the announcement Makhura saw the need to clarify that this was the decision of the provincial government - not some rushed, irrational decision by MEC for local government Lebogang Maile - speaks volumes of the level of politicking exacerbating the situation.

Maile previously botched his intervention in the governance of both the City of Tshwane and the City of Johannesburg, hurriedly suspending officials only to change his decision after the DA challenged him in court.

We welcome the move to put Tshwane under administration since there has not been a local government there to shoulder responsibility since the resignation of mayor Stevens Mokgalapa and his mayoral committee last month.

Several attempts to elect a new mayor have failed as ANC and EFF councillors would walk out of proceedings - denying the sitting the numbers it needed to quorate. Attempts to have an acting city manager appointed were also derailed because of the very same problem as council couldn't sit since the year started.

As a result, the city was running on empty and it was only a matter of time before the facade of a functioning municipality would crumble: core functions that need to be carried out, such as passing budgets and enacting laws couldn't be attended to.

The law demands that the city holds an election within 90 days of being put under administration. It is for this reason alone that we welcome the move; it means the residents will finally have a say on who gets to run their city, and that is the only voice that should matter.