The Tale of Tshwane: Turning the Page on Failed Government in Our Capital

These remarks were delivered today in Johannesburg by ActionSA Tshwane Joburg Mayoral Candidate Dr Nasiphi Moya at the launch of ActionSA’s 2026 Local Government Elections Manifesto.

President Mashaba, members of our national leadership, our candidates, and most importantly, our ActionSA activists from across South Africa.

It is a privilege to stand before you today as we launch ActionSA’s manifesto for the 2026 Local Government Elections.

This is an important moment for our party, and I am proud to share it with the activists building ActionSA in communities across our country.

For almost two years, I have had the privilege of serving as Executive Mayor of the City of Tshwane.

Today, I want to tell you what we have come to call the Tale of Tshwane.

When I became Mayor, I inherited a city that had tabled four consecutive unfunded budgets.

More than R13 billion in debt had piled up, including R6.7 billion owed to Eskom.

In Ikageng, families had lived without reliable water for eight years.

In Soshanguve, residents had become accustomed to repeated power outages as critical electricity infrastructure deteriorated.

And across our city, one in three residents was without work.

That was the Tshwane we inherited.

We could have spent the next two years explaining how we got there and blaming everyone who came before us.

Instead, we chose to get to work.

We chose to turn the page and begin writing a new chapter for our Capital.

And we started with the City’s finances.

When we took office, the City’s enormous debt to Eskom was simply unsustainable.

So we engaged the Minister of Electricity and Energy and secured a structured payment arrangement to start bringing that debt under control.

Today, Tshwane’s Eskom debt has been reduced by more than R2.5 billion.

At the same time, we strengthened revenue collection and tightened control over how the City spends residents’ money.

But financial discipline cannot mean turning our backs on people who genuinely cannot afford to pay.

That is why we have written off more than R4 billion in qualifying municipal debt for more than 85,000 indigent households.

Through stronger revenue collection, responsible spending and better management of our debt, we have begun restoring the City’s financial sustainability. This allowed Tshwane to table its first funded budget since June 2021.

Our audit outcomes are also improving.

A few years ago, Tshwane received an adverse audit opinion with 13 areas of qualification. That fell to six, and today we are down to two.

But the Tale of Tshwane could not only be about fixing the City’s finances. We also had to get our economy moving again.

We inherited an economy growing at less than 1%, without a clear strategy for how the City would attract investment and create the conditions for jobs.

So we developed the Tshwane Economic Revitalisation Strategy, giving the City a clear economic plan and a deliberate strategy to attract investment.

The investment pipeline across  Strategic Urban Development (SUD) areas is capable of unlocking more than R100 billion in private investment, creating over 300 000 direct employment opportunities and generating approximately R1.55 billion in future municipal rates and taxes each year.

But growing Tshwane’s economy cannot only be about businesses investing billions of rands.

It must also include the informal trader trying to earn a living, the spaza shop owner building a small business and the entrepreneur trying to create their first job.

That is why we adopted a new Informal Traders By-law that prioritises South Africans.

We have launched an online platform to make it easier for informal traders and small businesses to register, comply with the law and build their businesses.

Young people are among those hardest hit by unemployment, which is why we launched the Ithuba Youth Initiative.

More than 9,000 young people have registered, and more than 1,500 have already been assisted or linked to opportunities.

Fellow Actioners,

We also knew that fixing Tshwane meant restoring the rule of law.

Through our Reclaim Our City operations, we have gone directly after businesses operating illegally in our inner city.

At Ipi Ntombi Sports Bar, our teams discovered more than 40 small rooms being used for illegal sex work, together with serious safety violations and illegal structural extensions. We shut it down.

At the K20 Hotel, our teams uncovered a 54-room operation being used as an illicit brothel and housing complex.

These are part of more than 400 by-law enforcement operations conducted across Tshwane.

Immigration is a national government responsibility, but that does not mean we look the other way when we encounter illegal immigration in our city.

Working with Home Affairs and other law-enforcement authorities, more than 1,400 undocumented foreign nationals have been arrested during operations in Tshwane.

To strengthen our capacity to enforce the law, we are recruiting 200 additional Tshwane Metro Police officers. This is the first expansion of the TMPD on this scale since 2015.

But local government is ultimately closest to residents in the basic services they depend on every day.

Remember those families in Ikageng who had waited eight years for reliable water?

Their taps are flowing again.

Across Tshwane, we have replaced more than 28 kilometres of water pipes, including major interventions in Mamelodi, while repairing leaks and reducing our reliance on water tankers.

In Soshanguve, we invested more than R27 million refurbishing substations, including the IA Substation, to improve electricity supply to communities that had endured years of unreliable service.

On our roads, we are expanding our fleet of jetpatchers through the War on Potholes so that our teams can repair damaged roads faster.

But the Tale of Tshwane is ultimately about people.

Sometimes the impact of local government can be found in something as simple as a piece of paper.

Gogo Mafati Elizabeth Nxumalo is 90 years old.

For decades, she waited for the title deed to her home in New Eersterus.

This year, she finally received it.

She is one of more than 2,000 Tshwane residents who have received title deeds to their homes.

Fellow Actioners,

I have shared the Tale of Tshwane with you today because it is not only about Tshwane.

Our manifesto begins with a simple idea. If we want to fix South Africa, we have to start by fixing our local governments. Functional municipalities are the foundation of a prosperous country, and local government is where people experience the state in their everyday lives.

The circumstances in Prince Albert are different from those in Tshwane. The same is true of Rustenburg, Makhuduthamaga, Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni.

But the principles guiding our work in Tshwane run through this manifesto: put residents first, manage public money responsibly, deliver services, create opportunities and uphold the rule of law.

For almost two years, we have had to put them into practice in Tshwane.

The Tale of Tshwane is far from finished. With the right decisions, we can begin fixing what is broken.

And this is the tale we want to be able to tell about every municipality where ActionSA governs.

We want residents to know that a green flag means government that puts them first, gets the basics right and fixes what is broken.

That is what ActionSA is offering communities across South Africa through this manifesto.

We ask South Africans to turn the page on failed local government and build a new chapter of responsible government, reliable services, economic opportunity and the rule of law.

We have started that work in Tshwane.

Now it is time to take that work into communities across our country.

The time for talk and empty promises is over. Now is the time for action.

Let’s fix South Africa.

Thank you.

ActionSA JHB Success: Won 16% of the vote in Johannesburg in 2021.