ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has joined the fray in the City of Tshwane council dispute regarding the ex-gratia payments made to senior officials involving Mayor Nasiphi Moya and former mayor Cilliers Brink.

Taking to X, Mashaba called out Brink, accusing him of struggling to come to terms with his ousting as mayor.

Brink’s dramatic exit from office occurred last year after a motion of no confidence supported by ActionSA, EFF, and the ANC.

The controversy over payments emanated from a question posed by Brink to Moya during Tuesday’s council sitting about ex-gratia payments made to senior officials following the 2019/2020 municipal strike.

The payments in question were made when Moya was the chief of staff under former mayor Stevens Mokgalapa.

Moya declined to answer, citing that she required a legal opinion before she could provide a response.

Outside the council meeting, Brink posted a video on X in which he said: “So, last week when the Auditor-General was here the Mayor Nasiphi Moya talked a big game about holding senior officials to account. And the test for her own accountability happened today (Tuesday) when she faced her first written question as executive mayor.

“The question which I posed (was) about certain salary overpayments that have negative effects on the financial position of the City of Tshwane and she refused to answer that question, saying that she requires a legal opinion to inform her on whether she is obliged to answer questions to councillors.”

He further suggested that Moya’s actions indicated that she is falling short in demonstrating accountability.

“We won’t stop asking that question and if necessary, the DA will bring a PAIA (Promotion of Access to Information Act) application to get that information.”

In a sharp rebuke on X, Mashaba defended Moya by suggesting that Brink’s behaviour indicated he was still struggling to come to terms with no longer being the mayor.

“Brink still can’t believe that he is no longer the mayor. His party had assured him of the position, using their leverage in the GNU, now they have dropped him for the blue lights,” he said.

He also said Moya was happy to engage Brink as leader of the opposition, the DA.

Undeterred by Mashaba’s criticism, Brink fired back with a sarcastic remark, saying: “Why don’t you pay someone to write a book about it?”

His sarcastic comment was a clear reference to Mashaba’s multimillion-rand biography, “The Outsider: The Unauthorised Biography of Herman Mashaba”.

Despite being labelled “unauthorised”, it was subsequently revealed that Mashaba himself had commissioned political analyst Prince Mashele to write the book, and even paid a whopping R12.5 million for the project

Jonathan Ball Publishers withdrew the book from circulation, citing “material non-disclosure and breach of trust”.

The company said it had no knowledge of the funding agreement between Mashele and Mashaba at the time they entered into a publishing agreement with Mashele in 2022.

rapula.moatshe@.inl.co.za