Cilliers Brink’s latest attempt to manufacture a crisis in Tshwane demonstrates how far the DA’s mayoral candidate is prepared to go to mislead residents for his own political benefit.
Brink has taken to social media claiming that Tshwane’s fire engines have been “repossessed” because the City cannot pay its bills.
This is false.
As the City has confirmed, no Emergency Services vehicles have been repossessed as a result of non-payment. The vehicles Brink filmed are at a repair facility undergoing repairs and maintenance.
Repairs and maintenance are an entirely normal part of managing any large and complex municipal fleet, particularly one containing ageing and highly specialised emergency vehicles. The fact that vehicles are temporarily taken out of service for mechanical repairs or routine maintenance is not evidence that Emergency Services are collapsing or that the City cannot pay its bills.
This is not a complicated distinction, particularly for someone who previously served as Executive Mayor of Tshwane.
Yet Brink has deliberately presented these vehicles as evidence that the City cannot pay its bills and that critical emergency assets are being taken away. This is reckless and irresponsible fearmongering designed to create fear and confusion amongst residents for political gain.
What makes Brink’s latest performance even more cynical is that the DA led the government of Tshwane for most of the period since 2016.
The ageing condition of parts of Tshwane’s Emergency Services fleet did not develop overnight. It is the consequence of years of inadequate investment in replacing and renewing municipal assets, much of which occurred under the DA’s watch.
Brink cannot now photograph ageing municipal vehicles undergoing repairs, pretend they have been repossessed and campaign against the consequences of a fleet investment backlog that his own party had years to address.
ActionSA applauds the administration led by Executive Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya for beginning the difficult work of reversing this underinvestment.
Over the past year, the City has progressively expanded and renewed its Emergency Services fleet. Five additional rapid-response vehicles were delivered in December 2025, followed by new bush pumpers and support vehicles commissioned in February this year. Fleet renewal and the modernisation of municipal assets are now explicit priorities of the administration.
There is still considerable work to be done. But the real test of an Emergency Services Department is not whether some vehicles require repairs. It is whether the service continues to respond effectively when residents need it.
On that measure, Tshwane Emergency Services continues to perform. In the latest reporting period, 91.24% of emergency calls were processed and dispatched within 120 seconds, against a target of 70%.
Brink is entitled to campaign to return to the Mayor’s Office. He is not entitled to deliberately misrepresent vehicles undergoing routine repairs and maintenance as having been repossessed in order to frighten residents into believing that their emergency services are collapsing.
Tshwane has real challenges. Many of them stem from years of inadequate investment under governments in which the DA itself was in charge.
Those challenges are now being addressed.
They do not need to be manufactured for Cilliers Brink’s social media clout.
Brink’s Fire Engine Lies Are Reckless Fearmongering For Political Gain
Cilliers Brink’s latest attempt to manufacture a crisis in Tshwane demonstrates how far the DA’s mayoral candidate is prepared to go to mislead residents for his own political benefit.
Brink has taken to social media claiming that Tshwane’s fire engines have been “repossessed” because the City cannot pay its bills.
This is false.
As the City has confirmed, no Emergency Services vehicles have been repossessed as a result of non-payment. The vehicles Brink filmed are at a repair facility undergoing repairs and maintenance.
Repairs and maintenance are an entirely normal part of managing any large and complex municipal fleet, particularly one containing ageing and highly specialised emergency vehicles. The fact that vehicles are temporarily taken out of service for mechanical repairs or routine maintenance is not evidence that Emergency Services are collapsing or that the City cannot pay its bills.
This is not a complicated distinction, particularly for someone who previously served as Executive Mayor of Tshwane.
Yet Brink has deliberately presented these vehicles as evidence that the City cannot pay its bills and that critical emergency assets are being taken away. This is reckless and irresponsible fearmongering designed to create fear and confusion amongst residents for political gain.
What makes Brink’s latest performance even more cynical is that the DA led the government of Tshwane for most of the period since 2016.
The ageing condition of parts of Tshwane’s Emergency Services fleet did not develop overnight. It is the consequence of years of inadequate investment in replacing and renewing municipal assets, much of which occurred under the DA’s watch.
Brink cannot now photograph ageing municipal vehicles undergoing repairs, pretend they have been repossessed and campaign against the consequences of a fleet investment backlog that his own party had years to address.
ActionSA applauds the administration led by Executive Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya for beginning the difficult work of reversing this underinvestment.
Over the past year, the City has progressively expanded and renewed its Emergency Services fleet. Five additional rapid-response vehicles were delivered in December 2025, followed by new bush pumpers and support vehicles commissioned in February this year. Fleet renewal and the modernisation of municipal assets are now explicit priorities of the administration.
There is still considerable work to be done. But the real test of an Emergency Services Department is not whether some vehicles require repairs. It is whether the service continues to respond effectively when residents need it.
On that measure, Tshwane Emergency Services continues to perform. In the latest reporting period, 91.24% of emergency calls were processed and dispatched within 120 seconds, against a target of 70%.
Brink is entitled to campaign to return to the Mayor’s Office. He is not entitled to deliberately misrepresent vehicles undergoing routine repairs and maintenance as having been repossessed in order to frighten residents into believing that their emergency services are collapsing.
Tshwane has real challenges. Many of them stem from years of inadequate investment under governments in which the DA itself was in charge.
Those challenges are now being addressed.
They do not need to be manufactured for Cilliers Brink’s social media clout.