We will fight Midvaal merger so we can keep delivering the best services in Gauteng
Yesterday the Democratic Alliance (DA) swore in a new Mayor in Midvaal, Bongani Baloyi. Bongani was born in Thokoza in Ekurhuleni in 1987. Formerly the MMC for Development and Planning in Midvaal, Baloyi was instrumental in leading his team to achieve significant successes such as the first-ever collaborative initiative to count and record the residents of Sicelo, the ongoing food garden projects in Midvaal and the establishment of the Bantu-Bonke agricultural cooperative, amongst many others.
We congratulate him on his new position and we know that his energy and skills are going to continue to provide Midvaal with strong and sound political leadership.
This is the type of leadership and governance that leads to service delivery and real change. This is the type of leadership and governance which the DA wants to bring to the rest of Gauteng.
The DA has governed Midvaal since December 2000 and has turned the municipality into the centre of service delivery and job creation in Gauteng.
Under DA government Midvaal has received nine unqualified audits.
The municipality has also attracted some of the biggest private sector investments in recent years, including the Heineken bottling plant near Meyerton, and the Ferrero Roche factory.
As a result of this, Midvaal has been able to create more jobs for more of its people than anywhere else in Gauteng. In fact the municipality has achieved 15% economic growth per year over the past ten years and has an 11% unemployment rate, compared to the 25% national unemployment rate.
The Indigent policy in Midvaal already serves 3 015 households. In July 2012, the qualifying threshold was raised to R3 200 which allows a larger number of poor households to qualify for free and subsidised service. Beneficiaries are also offered extra services such as free burials.
The delivery of Multi-purpose Centres (MPC's) - including community halls, libraries, and sports and recreation facilities - is part of the municipality's objective to uplift communities. These provide access to employment, education, health, social and communal facilities. The library in the MPC in Sicelo township offers numerous services to students, including free internet access.
In short, the DA's track record not only reveals that it delivers the best services in the province but that in almost every area, from financial sustainability, to productivity, to rates collections, to its ability to spend its infrastructure grants, Midvaal has undeniably outperformed the ANC-run councils in the area. Because of this, the municipality has delivered a better standard of life to all its residents in all communities.
We want to bring this delivery and clean governance to the rest of Gauteng. We want to restore hope to the people of this province - they deserve to believe in a better future.
But the ANC has other plans which involve taking Midvaal away from the DA by merging it with ANC-governed Emfuleni to form a metro.
The DA will continue to fight this merger as we know that it will lead to the deterioration of service delivery in Gauteng's best run municipality. The ANC wants to merge Midvaal with a municipality that has never received an unqualified audit and whose unemployment rate is 59.3%.
Midvaal is a blue-print for the type of government we want to provide to the people of Gauteng. The residents of this province all deserve to live in a place that is free of corruption, that cares about the poor and that creates jobs so that people can provide for themselves and their families.
The DA aims to deliver new governance in Gauteng from next year and commits to bring the DA difference to all the people of this province. Our track record in Midvaal speaks for itself. The rest of Gauteng deserves nothing less.
Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane, DA Premier Candidate for Gauteng, August 30 2013
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