Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga says he has no powers to get rid of the blue lights currently on the cars being used by city officials. This comes after he said no one would be allowed to use blue lights in the capital city except for President Jacob Zuma, his deputy Cyril Ramaphosa and law enforcement officers.
In August, after he was elected to the position, he announced plans to prohibit blue lights in the city. Shortly afterward, he was accused by the ANC of using them himself.
Msimanga has however maintained that neither he nor his colleagues have used blue lights since coming into office.
"We inherited the vehicles and they were already fitted with the blue lights. I cannot just remove the blue lights," he said on Monday.
Msimanga said he has written to Gauteng premier David Makhura asking for permission to have the blue lights removed.
"Another application has been put through to the premier and higher structures for the blue lights to be removed because this is a South African Police Service competency and not a municipal one. The South African Police Service doesn't report to the city but to the premier, minister and president. We have not been granted permission to [remove the lights]," he said.
Msimanga added that despite the cars having blue lights, no member of his mayoral team was allowed to use them. He urged his colleagues to leave early for meetings in order to arrive on time.
"Anyone who has seen the blue lights being used can report the matter to the relevant authorities," he said.
In line with his clampdown on blue lights and flashy cars, Msimanga said on Monday that vehicles procured by the previous administration would be allocated to a new anti-hijack unit. He further stipulated that no public officials would drive luxury cars and they would use Hyundai i20s instead.