You said in a recent interview your decision to jump into bed with the ANC was motivated by concerns about governance and management of public finances?
That was an after decision. We took this decision when we learnt that the DA national leadership was pushing the ANC leadership to push the Gauteng province to do a deal with them and remove ActionSA from the three metros. We are the ones who put the DA into government in Tshwane, and we had a very toxic relationship from the beginning, but we tolerated this. We were abused and insulted, but we hung on to prevent the ANC having Tshwane ...
And now they’re going to have Tshwane with your support?
We talked to our councillors in Tshwane and said let’s get out of this marriage [with the DA] because for a long time these people have been abusing us. We were working with them, we were turning things around with them but ...
Why dump the coalition when you admit it’s turning things around?
ActionSA is not going to live in a relationship where I have a wife who would any time stab me in the back. We will never accept that.
So you’re putting your issues with the DA ahead of the interests of the people of Tshwane?
So we must stay in a relationship where the people you are working with to turn things around abuse you? Look at the auditor-general’s report from 2016, look at the turnaround when ActionSA came in, and we were running the government with the DA.
Didn’t you say the ANC was the only party you would never work with in a coalition because it’s a criminal enterprise?
What we are saying is we cannot be in a relationship where our partners who we thought we could trust go behind our back to negotiate with the ANC for our removal. We have the right to protect ourselves, and if anyone doesn’t like it, let them protect the DA next week.
Surely all that matters to the residents of Tshwane is that the coalition you want to collapse is turning the city around?
If you care about the residents, go and ask the DA why did they go behind ActionSA’s back to negotiate with the ANC to remove us.
How is working with the ANC to collapse the coalition going to improve the lives of residents?
So what you’re saying is ActionSA, they’re small boys, they must just wait for the boss to give them instructions?
Didn't you say you would never in 300 years work with the ANC?
What did the DA say on the eve of elections? Is the DA not working with the ANC? Didn’t they give the ANC a lifeline after the elections? If you are saying ActionSA can never work with the ANC but their boss, the DA, can ...
Isn’t it you who said ActionSA can never work with the ANC?
But what forced us into this arrangement? It’s the back-stabbing of the boss, because they think I’m a small boy. I’m 65 years old, I’m not a boy.
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