Msimanga vows to sack Tshwane metro police chief

TSHWANE’S “mayor-in-waiting”, Solly Msimanga, has repeated his intention to sack the metro police chief, Steve Ngobeni, and replace him with a career police officer.

Msimanga was speaking yesterday on the sidelines of the DA’s “Thank You Tshwane” rally at Freedom Park to celebrate the party’s election victory.

He vowed to keep the promises he made to people during door-to-door election campaigns. “My vision is to make sure that I get a career policeman in the City of Tshwane, because I want to change the pysche of how the metro police have been working in the city,” he said.

Msimanga said the Tshwane metro police had been working with the mentality of doing fund-raising and not fighting and preventing crime.

Making sure that the people abided by the traffic regulations and issuing fines should not be their sole mandate, he said. “We will make sure that they complement the work of the South African Police Service so that we can fight crime in our areas.”

Msimanga denied suggestions that he was bent on purging municipal senior officials who were not aligned to the DA. “I am not in the business of purging,” he said.

He was aware that there would be “those whose sole mandate will be to disrupt our programmes so that we fail and those are the people we will not be wanting in the administration”.

Standards

Under his leadership, all the directors would sign performance agreements outlining work standards and the kind of behaviour expected of them.

“If you can’t reach the goals set in the performance agreement, then we will need to evaluate if you are fit to be in that position,” he said.

Dressed in blue, party supporters chanted pro-DA and Msimanga songs and danced to celebrate their win in Tshwane.

The DA outperformed the ANC by clinching 43.11% of the vote, while the ANC got 41.22%.

Party leader Mmusi Maimane and Msimanga expressed gratitude to those who voted for the DA.

Maimane sang the praises of Msimanga, calling him “a great South African”.

“Never in my life have I seen a person who worked so hard. I can’t think of anyone who worked harder and showed more dedication,” he told the crowd.

According to Maimane, victories in the two metros, Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay, paved the way for the DA to win Gauteng in the 2019 national and provincial government elections.

Maimane said: “The DA will deliver for all the communities regardless of where they come from. We are here to serve South Africans because it is them who are the bosses.”

Msimanga said: “They laughed at us when we started. But I am not here to gloat because it is not my style.”

He said he was ready to deliver on issues raised by voters such as the drug problem, erratic and dirty water supply and jobs.