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.