MEC Maile continuing to use Tshwane as a political football

16 January 2020

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes the statement issued yesterday by the Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements, Urban Planning, Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Lebogang Maile on the directives given to the City of Tshwane as part of the MEC’s attempt to hijack the City’s coffers in preparation for the 2021 local government elections.

Ostensibly cloaked as a means of dealing with ‘service delivery issues’, the MEC lists a number of demands, which, if not met, would result in the City being placed under administration. Confusingly, a number of the measures which the MEC is calling for, are already in place, a fact which the MEC would be well aware, if he or his office had had any engagement with the City on the issues cited by the MEC.

As such, we are baffled as to how the MEC arrived at this point when due process has been so clearly ignored. The expectation is that this critically important government department would uphold the constitutional values of our democracy and respect the separation of powers between the various spheres of government.

Again the question arises as to why the City of Tshwane is being targeted while many municipalities in this province are languishing in a state of collapse with services having come to a halt.

Tshwane is actually in a good space. Under the DA-led coalition, the following has been achieved:

A stable outlook assigned to the City by Moody’s to for improving its operating performance, declining debt and rising liquidity;

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

Uncovered an amount of over R1.5 billion that was squandered by the previous ANC administration and reduced unauthorised expenditure by over a billion and irregular expenditure by R100 million;

Extended access to better healthcare by taking mobile clinics to taxi ranks;

Slashed the 900-plus political appointees in the Mayor’s Office

Maile should really concentrate his efforts elsewhere, such as Ekurhuleni, Emfuleni, Lesedi and the West Rand where:

Their financial standings have rapidly declined with many having to produce unfunded mandates;

Service providers are owed billions of Rands, including the state-owned entities of Rand Water and Eskom and as such, residents need to deal with regular disruptions to their water and electricity supply;

Waste water treatment works are not fully operational‚ resulting in untreated sewage spilling into the streets;

Basic services such as sanitation, refuse removal, and fire services have been affected.

Our hope is that MEC Maile and his office start fulfilling their mandate of assisting and supporting the functioning of local government, rather than hindering the delivery of services through needless and nonsensical ‘interventions’ in a City that is successfully serving its residents.

Issued by Solly Msimanga, DA Gauteng Caucus Leader, 16 January 2020