ANC memorandum of demands to the City of Tshwane

17 March 2023

The African National Congress (ANC) presents this memorandum of demands to the City of Tshwane on Friday 17 March 2023, concerning the political instability, serious governance failures and non-existent service delivery that badly affects the residents, businesses and the overall state of the City of Tshwane as a metropolitan municipality.

We are here to demand answers to the issues the ANC has raised over the past seven years.

We are here today to exercise our constitutional right to protest against the behaviour of this lethargic and tone-deaf administration which acts with impunity and thereby contributes to the deepening levels of poverty, inequality, and unemployment.

As the ANC, we are delivering this memorandum to the City Manager, Mr Johann Mettler, who is the accounting officer responsible to address problems that currently engulf the City of Tshwane.

As the ANC, we have tried on many occasions over the past 7 years to find common ground with the previous municipal administrations to discuss a way forward to discuss the state of service delivery and governance in the City of Tshwane. However, all our attempts have been rebuffed.

Therefore, this is why the ANC from the National, Provincial, and Regional levels has decided to engage the City Manager and the newly elected Speaker directly in trying to resolve a myriad of issues that affect the City of Tshwane and its residents.

It is of concern that we have not received a response to the memorandum of demands submitted on the 2$ of November 2022 by the ANC in the Tshwane region. This was submitted through the previous municipal administration and directly to Council, the DA-led multiparty coalition. The inaction by the former Municipal Mayoral Committee of the DA-led multi-party coalition has been detrimental to the lives of residents in Tshwane who cannot develop within their city and cannot access basic services. In this regard, we will not stand by whilst the residents are suffering and the municipality fails to implement the Constitutional obligations and the developmental goals of the state that are clearly outlined in the National Development Plan and 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

The ANC, therefore, demands the following:

I. Stabilise municipal governance and ensure independent investigations on all corruption and maladministration that occurred over the past 7 years under the DA-led administration.

2. Call on the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) to investigate and recover monies lost to the people of Tshwane. Further call for protection of all whistleblowers.

3. DA MMC's councillors who benefitted unduly from the municipality after the resignation of Randall Williams and the collapse of the mayoral committee must pay back the money that they received as MMCs whilst in those positions.

4. Prioritise support to small and medium-sized businesses of previously disadvantaged communities by returning to the Employee Preparatory Programme and the Tshepo Ten Thousand youth opportunities which were formulated to ensure that young people gain relevant job entry-level experience.

5. Fill all vacant positions without the DA's political influence in the next three months.

6. Provide a conducive and safe environment where streetlights are working in all townships and urban areas. Sewage systems to be fixed across Tshwane to reduce current health and environmental challenges.

7. Immediately address the billing system. Develop a meter reading system that is not based on estimates which leads to the exploitation of the most vulnerable in our society.

8. Reinstate the indigent programme, and ensure that the poor and vulnerable which includes pensioners and child-headed households benefit from it. Bring back the free basic electricity programme, water, free Wi-Fi and other basic services that poor and vulnerable households are entitled to receive.

9. The Expanded Public Works Programme are to be controlled by the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure which must hire beneficiaries directly since the City of Tshwane is incapable of spending the relevant grants amid mass unemployment and poverty.

10. Refurbish all heritage sites, museums, and libraries.

11. Remove refuse and garbage. Clean the townships and inner-city areas and allocate the budget for these.

12. Pay Eskom and other contractors on time and play an active role in clearing all your debts to ensure that the City operates smoothly on a day-to-day basis.

13. Honour the collective bargaining agreement with the workers.

14. Reinstate the Tshwane Free Wi-Fi in schools, universities and malls which was terminated by the DA-led council.

15. Demand that through the intergovernmental relations framework projects such as road repairs and infrastructure development be addressed.

As the ANC, we are a progressive liberation movement which has been in government for almost 30 years, and we enjoy the electoral support of the majority of South Africans. We believe that all the above demands are legitimate. All ANC deployees in the City of Tshwane must ensure these demands to exercise their oversight role in pursuance of these demands.

The racist and ignorant DA must always know that we shall never apologise for standing up for the poor and working class. We shall never apologise for asserting the constitutional rights of South Africans. We shall never apologise for demanding a better-transformed system for our children. We were established for this purpose and can never betray the mission of our existence and the cause of freedom.

Issued by ANC, 17 March 2023