To the residents of Tshwane, officials of the City, my fellow councillors and colleagues in the Democratic Alliance (DA), members of the multiparty coalition and those who serve in the opposition benches.
Today, I am formally resigning as the Executive Mayor of Tshwane as of midnight on 28 February 2023.
To have served in this role has been one of the greatest honours of my life. There is no greater privilege, I believe, than to have been chosen to public office to represent my fellow residents.
One of my core goals as Executive Mayor has always been to ensure the stability of the multiparty coalition in the City of Tshwane, without which service delivery suffers. I do not want the political instability that has taken place in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni to spill over into Tshwane. Keeping the multiparty coalition together requires continuous communication and engagement to ensure unity in our City to achieve our goals.
I resign today, because I believe it is in the best interest of the continued stability of the coalition in the City. Being Executive Mayor of the capital city has not been without its difficulties, but I have embraced every challenge that has come my way in the execution of my duties, all of which have allowed for my own personal development.
I resign today not in frustration, resentment or anger, but in peace knowing that I have been given an incredible opportunity and have fulfilled my duties to the best of my ability.
When I was first elected as Executive Mayor of Tshwane at the end of October 2020, the City was in an incredibly challenging position. We had just removed the ANC administrators who had mismanaged the City and our country was still in a state of disaster regarding the COVID-19 lockdown. Having inherited a R4 billion deficit at the time, my immediate goal was to stabilise the City’s finances.
At that point I was leading a DA minority government and within a year we would have the local government elections. Thus, there was immense pressure to guide the City to those elections and ensure stability in the government, which was incredibly difficult.
Campaigning and ensuring proper governance in the City are very challenging, but I was able to do this with a good team and clear focus on the tasks ahead with our ten-point service delivery plan.
In November 2021, I was once again elected as the Executive Mayor of Tshwane, this time at the head of the City’s first multiparty coalition government.
Our focus as a team has always been on prioritising core service delivery in Tshwane and ensuring its continued financial stability.
This is why we kicked off 2022 with our aggressive TshwaneYaTima campaign to highlight the challenges facing the City in terms of non-payment and driving collections so that we could enhance service delivery.
In the months that followed, I conducted numerous basic service delivery operations across Tshwane to ensure that our teams were on the ground. I have joined and led our by-law teams as we restored law and order in our city. I have been particularly proud of the Tshwane Metro Police Department who have removed illegal drugs worth millions of rand off the streets and arrested countless drug dealers.
Our focus on core infrastructure in the city has never wavered. We have never opted for vanity projects that bring no direct benefit to our residents. The top of our priorities has always been our electricity, water and road infrastructure, which requires urgent attention after years of neglect.
We prioritised substation refurbishment projects across the city, from Bronkhorstspruit, to Kosmosdal and Soshanguve, to ensure that we protect this critical infrastructure. Furthermore, at the end of this month we will formally unveil Townlands, the biggest social housing project in the country.
I implore the next leadership of the City to stay true to these priorities as we look towards the future.
As I leave office, I want to thank my fellow members of the Mayoral Committee for their dedication, hard work and efforts over these past months. We made an incredible team. I want to acknowledge my party, the DA, for putting their faith in me alongside my local DA caucus and the members of our multiparty coalition. To all of the activists and supporters out there who helped me get elected, thank you. To the officials of the City and those in the Office of the Executive Mayor, I wish you all the best and thank you for your service.
Finally, to the residents of Tshwane, thank you for your support. Our City has immense potential and I am hopeful for its future and growth. It has been my honour to have served as your Executive Mayor.
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Alderman Randall Williams
EXECUTIVE MAYOR OF TSHWANE