The metro municipality of Tshwane has been placed under administration by the Gauteng provincial government. This means that the city’s municipal council has been dissolved, and that an election to choose a new council must be held within 90 days.
Tshwane, which includes Pretoria, has been in turmoil in recent times. This has included the resignation of mayor Stevens Mokgalapa, and the failure of attempts to elect a successor. The council also failed to pass a budget, which should have been approved by the end of last month.
In the 2016 municipal elections, the Democratic Alliance (DA) emerged as the single biggest party in the city, with 43% of the vote, closely followed by the African National Congress (ANC) with 41%. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) managed nearly 12%. The DA initially governed the city with the support of smaller parties. However, following the resignation of Mokgalapa, who had been implicated in a sex scandal, the DA failed to build the coalition it needed to elect a new mayor.
The DA has, meanwhile, claimed that the city is not under administration and that it will fight the decision in court.
The DA will likely be hoping to avoid a full city election. The party has gone through a period of turmoil of late, doing badly in by-elections around the country. Furthermore, there is evidence that much of the party’s white Afrikaans support has drifted to the Freedom Front Plus in the past few years. White Afrikaners make up a significant voting bloc in Tshwane and the DA will have to do well amongst them to have any hope of remaining the biggest party in the city.