South African capital gets first opposition party mayor

By Hassan Isilow

PRETORIA, South Africa

A South African opposition councilor made history on Friday after getting elected as mayor of the capital Pretoria, which had been under the control of the ruling Africa National Council (ANC) for 22 years.

Solly Msimanga of the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) was elected unopposed during the first council meeting held Friday, just two weeks after the August 3 municipal election.

“We know more than half-a-million people have lost their jobs. We will ensure they get new jobs,’’ the 36-year-old politician pledged in his first official speech.

Msimanga also promised to improve service delivery and fight corruption among officials in the city.

The ANC, which has been in power since 1994, had enjoyed majority support for its role in ending white minority rule, but the party saw a serious decline in its urban vote during the August 3 polls.

The party lost control of the capital Pretoria and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality to the DA.

In Pretoria, the DA polled 43.1 percent of the vote versus the ANC’S 41.5 percent. In Mandela Bay, the DA secured 46.7 percent of the vote compared to the ANC’s 40.1 percent.

Opposition parties had refused to join coalitions with the ANC to form municipal governments but instead chose to vote for the DA in the hung municipalities.

On Wednesday, the DA’S Athol Trollip was also elected unopposed as mayor for the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.

The municipality, a former stronghold of the ANC, was named after the late Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black democratically-elected president, an anti-apartheid hero, and the ANC’s leader from 1991 to 1997.

Many political analysts attribute the ANC’s decline in support to Party President Jacob Zuma’s many scandals, including his alleged use of millions in public funds to upgrade his private home.