Western Cape DA leader Patricia de Lille made history by becoming the first mayor of Cape Town to finish her term, and be re-elected for a consecutive term.
De Lille is back on the job after she was formally elected again as mayor during the City’s first council meeting following last week’s municipal elections.
After winning an outright majority in the city, DA councillors voted in favour of De Lille, who was challenged by ANC mayoral nominee Xolani Sotashe.
Sotashe received 56 votes to De Lille’s 160.
De Lille, first elected in 2011, at the time beat out Dan Plato, who had succeeded Helen Zille in 2009, when the latter was elected as Western Cape Premier.
In her acceptance speech yesterday, she urged opposition parties to keep her on her toes, but to do so constructively.
“A two thirds majority requires a credible opposition to monitor the exercise of power and the headiness of an overwhelming majority, and so I would like to appeal to the opposition today to work constructively in the new Council,” she said.
“We may be political adversaries, but we need not be enemies.”
Reflecting on the outcome of last week’s elections, she noted that countrywide there’s been a shift in the way people have voted.
“In South Africa, the arrogance of power has been brought low by the will of the people and it is glorious,” she said.
Speaking about service delivery, De Lille said: “We will continue to spend 67 percent of our budget on the poor. We will continue to redress the imbalances of the past and replace concrete roads, retrofit ceilings in government housing, and give title deeds and property ownership to people.”
In his turn at the podium, Sotashe promised ANC councillors would work with the City “constructively”, but would raise issues “aggressively” to ensure the plight of their constituents are heard.
“We are not going to be cowboys, do street fighting. We will come here as democrats, professionals to make sure as the ANC, the constituency that has elected us to be here, it is serviced,” said Sotashe.