Mokgalapa, who was born in Tshwane, will leave his position as the DAs shadow minister of international relations and cooperation to take on the mayorship. (Facebook)
The Democratic Alliance’s mayoral candidate, Stevens Mokgalapa, has been elected the new mayor of the City of Tshwane following a special sitting of the metro’s council on Tuesday.
Mokgalapa, who was born in Tshwane, will leave his position as the DA’s shadow minister of international relations and cooperation to take on the mayorship.
He completed his undergraduate studies in political science and his honours degree in international relations at the University of Pretoria and has served in the metro as a ward and PR councillor for nine years.
Mokgalapa takes the reins from Solly Msimanga who announced his resignation on January 11 to focus on his campaign to become premier of Gauteng ahead of the May 8 national elections.
In his resignation letter, handed to council speaker Katlego Mathebe, Msimanga wrote that he is stepping down to pursue higher office.
“It has become clear to me and the DA that unless we govern the Gauteng province with an outright majority, the fate of the people of Tshwane will soon be fate of the people of Gauteng across the board,” he said.
Msimanga’s resignation came amid claims that he was pushed out of the city by his party because of unsatisfactory performance and endless scandals such as hiring of unqualified officials in his office and the multibillion-rand GladAfrica scandal.
The R1.2-billion contract awarded to engineering consultants GladAfrica was found to be irregularly awarded after the auditor-general found that it had not complied with supply chain regulations.
The ANC caucus in the council refused to vote on Tuesday. This follows the party announcing their intention to table a motion of no confidence on January 31 in a bid to oust Msimanga.
This despite the fact that Msimanga had already announced his resignation earlier in the month.
Msimanga was also, on Tuesday, sworn into the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.