Minister Sisulu continues to exclude City of Cape Town
5 May 2015
In my capacity as the City of Cape Town’s Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, I have once again been turned away from a high-level meeting with Minister Lindiwe Sisulu.
Minister Sisulu continues to misuse her position as the National Minister of Human Settlements to seemingly block service delivery in the City of Cape Town. Over the past few months, there has been a growing tendency of blocking the City of Cape Town from attending strategic meetings.
The Department of Human Settlements invited all metro mayors to attend a meeting in Johannesburg on 4 May 2015 where the Urban Settlements Development Grant would be discussed. The City’s Executive Mayor, Patricia de Lille, had a long-standing commitment which she could not cancel. She communicated her unavailability with the Minister’s office and confirmed that she would be sending me as her representative. We confirmed my attendance several times with her secretariat and no objection was received.
On Monday morning, we received communication from the Minister’s office that the meeting was ‘strictly’ for executive mayors. At this stage, I was already en route to Johannesburg. This is the second time that this has occurred and Mayor De Lille has indicated that she will be addressing this recurring unprofessional behaviour with the Premier to prevent it from happening again.
In March, the City’s Executive Director (ED) for Human Settlements had a similar experience. An e-mail was sent out advising that Minister Sisulu requested a special meeting of Human Settlements Ministers and Members of Executive Councils to discuss the performance of the Human Settlements Development Grant with a view to addressing the expenditure constraints before the end of the current financial year. The ED confirmed his attendance for the meeting which was to take place in Gauteng.
On the day of the meeting, and after the ED had departed from Cape Town, a message from the organisers came through advising that it was necessary to cancel the meeting.
On another occasion, the National Department of Human Settlements arranged a series of meetings with provinces and metros to discuss the Urban Settlements Development Grantdelivery targets for the Medium-Term Strategic Framework period.
Some way through his presentation at the above meeting, the City’s Head of Housing Policy and Research was asked by the Chairperson to stop because he was apparently not speaking to what was required. However, the City had prepared a presentation which was specific to the brief received from the National Department of Human Settlements. This is another example of how the City’s time and resources were wasted due to unprofessionalism and administrative incompetence from the Minister’s office.
We refuse to allow Minister Sisulu to be an obstacle to service delivery in Cape Town.Despite our very best efforts to work with various levels of government, the Minister’s office continues to waste the City of Cape Town’s time and resources. This is a sign of utter disrespect and unprofessionalism. In the run-up to the 2016 municipal elections, we will not tolerate the politicisation of service delivery because the ANC fears losing more municipalities. We would like to get on with the business of governance which we have been elected to do.
Statement issued by Councillor Benedicta van Minnen, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, City of Cape Town, May 5 2015
