EXECUTIVE Mayor Solly Msimanga attended the ordinary sitting of council for the final time yesterday.
In his closing address, he had a go at the former ANC administration and praised his two-year old government.
Like any new broom, Msimanga started off in 2016 by what, in his words, was to clean up the mess left by the ANC.
His government sought to free the metro from the controversial smart meters contract, but fell into a similar trap with the GladAfrica tender.
Rumours of service delivery meltdown surfaced, but the new DA-led coalition government was quick to point out that these were the acts of vandalism curated to tarnish its image.
The mayor was to spend the better parts of his first year talking about the R2 billion deficit he inherited from the previous administration and how he would turn things around.
However, the ANC, under the new leadership of Dr Kgosi Maepa, continued to breath down the mayor’s neck.
As Msimanga walks out of the council chamber for the last time, he leaves the killer Soshanguve high-mast light tragedy still standing (the Pretoria News this week reported that it could be removed next week).
City manager Dr Moeketsi Mosola, who has been implicated of tender irregularities, is still on the job. Senior officials are sitting at home or on suspension due to alleged flaunting of recruitment processes. Others occupy high offices without required qualifications.
The list of both success and failures is endless, but as worded in Msimanga’s speech, the City needs a strong successor, who will carve out a way out of these matters, irrespective of political affiliation.
We sincerely hope so, for, service delivery cannot suffer as a result of the havoc created by political storms.