On 3 November 2025, an event took place that received little attention despite its considerable impact.
The South African Local Government Bargaining Council ruled that the City of Tshwane is obliged to pay wage increases dating back to 2021/2022, which the DA-led government at the time had fought vigorously to avoid paying.
During its involvement in coalitions led by the Democratic Alliance since 2021, ActionSA continually raised concern about the approach taken by DA Mayors in the City of Tshwane in relation to negotiated wage agreements which have the effect of law.
ActionSA consistently held the view that the City must renegotiate these agreements or honour them, because simply ignoring them and waiting for a multi-year legal process to conclude was irresponsible. In internal and public engagements on the matter, ActionSA raised the risk of a contingent liability of years of salary increases having to be back paid when it was inevitably found that the City had to meet its agreed commitments or renegotiate new ones.
This concern was one of several that ultimately led to the removal of the DA in the City of Tshwane because of its dismissal of the concerns of its largest coalition partner at the time.
On 3 November 2025, these concerns raised by ActionSA came crashing down on the City of Tshwane and its residents when the Bargaining Council ruled against the City. As a consequence of this ruling, the City and its residents must now pay R1.6 billion in backdated salary increases owing to its municipal workers, rather than the R489 million that it refused to pay in 2021/2022.
This comes as yet another inherited legacy of eight years of failed DA governance in the City of Tshwane that continues to burden our capital even after the departure of previous Mayors. ActionSA Mayor, Dr Nasiphi Moya, and her multi-party coalition must now address this liability alongside the inherited R6.7 billion Eskom debt which was allowed to balloon while residents were paying their electricity bills.
One would imagine that such an expensive revelation of the DA’s myth of good governance in Gauteng would have resulted in humility on the part of former Mayor Brink and the DA, but one would be wrong. The DA has sought to campaign on this latest crisis of its own making as it continues a campaign of ambulance-chasing in a desperate attempt to deflect from the reality that it drove our capital city into the ground.
ActionSA offers its strongest support to Tshwane Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya and her multi-party coalition government, which must now add this latest blow to their efforts to turn around the City of Tshwane.
We are confident that progress will continue to be made even while enduring the indignity of Brink and the DA’s politicking on yet another crisis arising from their failed leadership.
Among the growing list of achievements by ActionSA Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya and her multi-party coalition government are:
- First fully funded budget since 2021.
- Liquidity ratios increased.
- Eskom debt reduced by 25 percent.
- Ratings agencies revising the City’s outlook from negative to positive.
- More jobs created in Tshwane in Q1 2025 than Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg combined.
- R86 billion in investment pledges received.
- First metro police expansion in the City since 2013.
- 220 km of roads resurfaced.
- R14 billion in irregular expenditure under investigation.
DA Cheaply Campaigns on Financial Blow They Caused Through Bad Governance in Tshwane
On 3 November 2025, an event took place that received little attention despite its considerable impact.
The South African Local Government Bargaining Council ruled that the City of Tshwane is obliged to pay wage increases dating back to 2021/2022, which the DA-led government at the time had fought vigorously to avoid paying.
During its involvement in coalitions led by the Democratic Alliance since 2021, ActionSA continually raised concern about the approach taken by DA Mayors in the City of Tshwane in relation to negotiated wage agreements which have the effect of law.
ActionSA consistently held the view that the City must renegotiate these agreements or honour them, because simply ignoring them and waiting for a multi-year legal process to conclude was irresponsible. In internal and public engagements on the matter, ActionSA raised the risk of a contingent liability of years of salary increases having to be back paid when it was inevitably found that the City had to meet its agreed commitments or renegotiate new ones.
This concern was one of several that ultimately led to the removal of the DA in the City of Tshwane because of its dismissal of the concerns of its largest coalition partner at the time.
On 3 November 2025, these concerns raised by ActionSA came crashing down on the City of Tshwane and its residents when the Bargaining Council ruled against the City. As a consequence of this ruling, the City and its residents must now pay R1.6 billion in backdated salary increases owing to its municipal workers, rather than the R489 million that it refused to pay in 2021/2022.
This comes as yet another inherited legacy of eight years of failed DA governance in the City of Tshwane that continues to burden our capital even after the departure of previous Mayors. ActionSA Mayor, Dr Nasiphi Moya, and her multi-party coalition must now address this liability alongside the inherited R6.7 billion Eskom debt which was allowed to balloon while residents were paying their electricity bills.
One would imagine that such an expensive revelation of the DA’s myth of good governance in Gauteng would have resulted in humility on the part of former Mayor Brink and the DA, but one would be wrong. The DA has sought to campaign on this latest crisis of its own making as it continues a campaign of ambulance-chasing in a desperate attempt to deflect from the reality that it drove our capital city into the ground.
ActionSA offers its strongest support to Tshwane Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya and her multi-party coalition government, which must now add this latest blow to their efforts to turn around the City of Tshwane.
We are confident that progress will continue to be made even while enduring the indignity of Brink and the DA’s politicking on yet another crisis arising from their failed leadership.
Among the growing list of achievements by ActionSA Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya and her multi-party coalition government are: