Continuing to put the People of Tshwane first

Note to Editors: The following statement was read out at Nkululeko House by the DA’s Candidate for Tshwane Mayor, Stevens Mokgalapa. He was joined by DA Gauteng Provincial Chairperson, Mike Moriarty, and DA North Gauteng Regional Chairperson, Abel Tau.

I am proud to accept the DA’s nomination as the mayoral candidate for the City of Tshwane.

After extensive internal processes and interviews to find a suitable replacement for the position of Executive Mayor of the City of Tshwane, I am honoured to be the Democratic Alliances’ candidate to carry on the good work done by mayor Msimanga, should I be elected by council.

I will carry on with the hard work of rebuilding the City and delivering on our manifesto commitments. My priority will be to carry on the DA’s positive vision to create an environment that allows job creation, deliver better services, and eliminate corruption.

My main priority will be to continue the good work of stabilising the city administration in order to deliver better services to all residents. Much has been done in this regard, but much more is needed to reverse the rot we inherited in 2016.

I will strongly address ongoing matters related to big contracts in the City, such as GladAfrica and the PEU smart meter contract. I will also ensure that senior managers who are legislatively responsible for the running of the city and the functioning of supply chain are held accountable.

My unique history and life experience allow me to understand the challenges faced by the city and the required solutions to tackle them.  I was born and raised in Tshwane and have dedicated my entire professional life to serving the people of this beautiful country. I am excited to be given this opportunity to be a candidate for the mayoralty and will continue this service, specifically for the residents of Tshwane.

I completed a degree in Political Science and Honours degree in International Relations from the University of Pretoria; I thereafter completed my honours degree at the University of the Western Cape (UWC). Before joining the DA (then known as the Democratic Party) in 1999, I served as a Ward and PR Councillor in the City of Tshwane for nine years. I have also held various positions in the party, I was first appointed as a Regional Executive Member and advanced to Branch Chairperson. I am also actively involved in community development projects as a social welfare organisation coordinator and development advisor.

As a Member of Parliament, I served as Shadow Minister of Human Settlements and I am currently the Shadow Minister of International Relations and Co-operations.

Given my extensive knowledge of both national and local government, I will be able to continue to lead the DA-led administration in the City of Tshwane and I hope we can rely on the support of council to make this a reality.

While much work has been done to turn Tshwane around after decades of ANC mismanagement, we must never forget the people whose lives still need to change drastically.

I would like to thank the out-going Executive Mayor, Solly Msimanga for the outstanding job he has done leading Tshwane for the past two and a half years. He started the wheel of change to the lives of the people of Tshwane, a task that was not an easy, but through sheer political will, commitment and dedication, he managed to make massive inroads.

His administration most notably;

Corrected an inherited R2 billion deficit to show a surplus at the end of the first financial year in office in 2017;

Uncovered over R1.5 billion that was squandered by the previous ANC government. We were able to reduce unauthorized expenditure by over a billion rand and irregular expenditure by R100 million;

Managed to remove over 900 political appointees in the Mayor’s office who were glorified ANC cadres drawing millions of rands from the city;

Managed to sell the mayoral mansion built by the former mayor Kgosientso “Sputla” Ramokgopa for his personal benefit and used the R5 million from the sale to build 52 RDP houses for 40 families in Attridgeville;

Supported real economic development by opening the EPWP programme to all residents, not just those who are associated or linked to the ANC, by adopting an open and inclusive lottery system. So far, we have provided the residents of this City with 16125 job opportunities and by the end of last year the City had registered over 120 000 people on the new fair lottery-based system;

The City has also given 1800 bursaries out to the value of R34 million. We began the Msimanga Informal Trader Bursary Fund which has made available R226 325 to settle outstanding fees for the 2017 academic year for ten existing beneficiaries;

Our efforts to attract investment have far exceeded our initial goals. TEDA has an investment target of R1.5 billion - the current investment pipeline amounts to R3.84 billion with a potential 1 850 job opportunities.

Ensuring the City received a credit upgrade from Moody’s and was assigned a stable outlook. Moody’s ascribed this upgrade to the improvement in the City’s operating performance and the strong liquidity position built up over the past two years. The upgrade means that those who want to do business with Tshwane, particularly local and international investors, will begin to offer discounted interest rates and better terms despite the recent rate hike by the Reserve Bank;

Launched an inner-city rejuvenation project to improve, among other things, the cleanliness and viability of the City for entrepreneurship and further investment.

The result of our efforts has been a R3.8 billion in investment with potential 1850 new jobs being created soon. There are 15 new projects in the investment pipeline worth approximately R2bn, which include automotive suppliers, logistics projects, aviation and hi-tech manufacturing.

Written off close to R400 million in irrecoverable debt for indigent residents across the city of Tshwane who continue to suffer under the weight of being unable to afford their municipal accounts.

To our coalition partners, we thank you for standing by us and supporting thus far and ask that you continue to support me as we continue to serve the people of Tshwane together.

Most importantly I would like to thank the residents of Tshwane for entrusting the DA-led administration with the responsibility of bettering your lives, you can be assured that we will continue to work tirelessly to deliver the change we have promised and also ensure a seamless transition between the out-going and incoming Mayor, should we be able to elect a DA mayor during our council meeting. We hope that the parties represented in council and those who work with us, will not allow Tshwane to be handed back to the ANC and their coalition of corruption. We hope that those parties will continue placing the interests of the people of Tshwane first when the election of a mayor is held.

Issued by the DA, 3 February 2019