By Akani Nkuna
ActionSA’s incumbent Tshwane mayor, Nasiphi Moya, has pledged to prioritise infrastructure development should she return to office following the 2026 local government elections, saying investment in infrastructure has been neglected for years and has failed to keep pace with population growth.
“Infrastructure development is going to be an absolute obsession if I come back as the Executive Mayor in the City of Tshwane. We know what we are dealing with in that we as a country, as a city, neglected to invest in infrastructure development,” she said.
“The infrastructure we have is not keeping up with the population growth and it is just getting worse.”
She was speaking to the media outside the Sammy Marks Museum in Pretoria on Wednesday after casting her vote.
Her promise comes as the City of Tshwane continues to grapple with water challenges, including frequent pipe bursts and, most recently, E. coli contamination at the Bronkhorstspruit Water Treatment Works (BWTW).
Last month, Moya and the Tshwane municipality came under fire following an outbreak of gastrointestinal illness linked to the municipality’s supply of unchlorinated water from the BWTW, which resulted in more than 800 people falling sick.
Opposition parties in the council, led by the EFF, lodged complaints against Moya with the Public Protector and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) after the Department of Water and Sanitation said the city had failed to warn residents against drinking the unchlorinated water.
Moya said that the water challenges in Bronkhorstspruit and Hammanskraal had persisted for decades. She said that, despite inheriting these problems from her predecessors, the city had made “significant efforts” during her tenure to address them.
Tshwane has experienced several changes in political leadership since the November 2021 municipal elections.
The DA initially governed through a coalition involving ActionSA and smaller political parties, with Cilliers Brink later serving as executive mayor.
Brink was removed through a motion of no confidence in September 2024. Moya became mayor in October 2024, supported by the ANC and other parties.
Although the ANC holds substantially more council seats than ActionSA, the governing arrangement gives ActionSA the executive mayor’s office and the ANC the deputy mayoralty and finance responsibilities.
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