The African National Congress’ (ANC) newly elected Executive Mayor of Ekurhuleni Mzwandile Masina said the ruling party “felt the anger and frustrations” of South Africans as he vowed to improve service delivery in the metro.

“Indeed, we felt your anger and frustrations. We heard you and today we want to assure you that this day marks the beginning of the hard work of ensuring that those issues you raised with us are speedily attended to,” Masina said on Tuesday during his inaugural speech.

“In taking forward the agenda of improving the general living standards of Ekurhuleni, we will together with the collective leadership, both institutionally and organisationally continue to give critical attention to quality service delivery.

“We have to ensure that through our collective efforts, our communities will see marked improvement in their living standards and living conditions.”

Masina said key focus areas for the municipality would be to improve service delivery and Capex spending; the electrification of all informal settlements; the construction of 100 000 housing units; the provision of 59 000 serviced stands; and putting the Ekurhuleni university issue on the national agenda.

He said Ekurhuleni would also fast-track the up-scaling of services in informal settlements; invest in water infrastructure; start the process of establishing a power station in Ekurhuleni; fighting fraud and corruption; accelerating the piloting of 24-hour clinic services; and speeding up the BRT and Wi-Fi roll-out.

Masina was elected mayor on Tuesday afternoon after he beat the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Ghaleb Cachalia, while Patricia Kumalo was elected as the Speaker.

Reflecting on the local government elections on August 3, Masina said it was a “sad day” that the ANC could not retain all three metros in Gauteng.

The DA’s Solly Msimanga was elected Tshwane mayor on Friday. DA councillor Rachel Mathebe was elected Speaker of the Tshwane council and the DA’s Christo van der Heever was elected the new chief whip of the Tshwane council.

Meanwhile, in Johannesburg, the DA’s Herman Mashaba emerged victorious at the Johannesburg council sitting after he was elected executive mayor on Monday night. Mashaba received 144 votes against incumbent mayor Parks Tau’s 125.

The DA’s Kevin Wax was elected council chief whip with 146 votes and the DA’s Vasco da Gama was elected speaker.

“It is rather a sad day that having done so much to transform the lives of our people, some have seen it fit to replace the ANC in government in two of the three Gauteng metros,” Masina lamented.

Reflecting on the “success stories” from Johannesburg, Masina said Soweto was rejuvenated into a world class township with Vilakazi Street being into an iconic tourism area. He also pointed out the introduction of the BRT system, which he said has transformed the movement of people.

Masina said the young and old who were either students, entrepreneurs or small enterprises were already benefiting from the roll-out of the Free Wifi.

“Yet all this and many more could not convince our people of the track record of the ANC-led governments in transforming Johannesburg and Tshwane. I dare say, we the people of Ekurhuleni … were spared this moment not because we are different, but because of our understanding of the true meaning of the struggle for liberation,” Masina said.

“People of Ekurhuleni, as the ANC-led government we stand before you today to recommit to serve you. Indeed, we are at your mercy. Your future would not have been in better hands.”