Nkandla money came from Soweto housing projects

Note to editors: DA Premier Candidate and Johannesburg Caucus Leader Mmusi Maimane delivered his farewell speech in City Council today during the Debate on the State of the City address 2014.

We welcome the opportunity to debate the State of the City today because it is important that 20 years into our democracy we analyse both how far we have come, and where we need to take Johannesburg as a City. 

It is also a bittersweet day for me because today this is my last speech as Caucus Leader in this City council.

A part of the Mayor's State of the City speech I particularly liked was when he spoke about SMME's.

It is good for us as a province to be talking about how we can help entrepreneurial people start businesses. 

Entrepreneurs should lead Gauteng and this City must do everything in its power to support them. The spirit is strong in our people. 

We see it every day in the take-aways, barber shops, spazas and internet café's that line the streets of any township in Gauteng. There are so many people who have ideas that lead to a better life for their families. 

People with ideas for small businesses that create jobs in our communities, CBD's and transport hubs.We don't support entrepreneurs enough. 

We said we would build 7 centres where anyone can walk in and get help to start a successful business. The City didn't do that this year. We also never allowed entrepreneurs to do business with the City enough. 

We had a R3billion rand target for doing business with SMME's and we never met it. I'm sure Mayor Tau would agree we must try harder. I just don't think the City of Joburg has a big enough vision for small business. 

There is no reason why we can't triple the amount of contracts we sign with entrepeneurs. Let's make the target for partnerships with SMME's R9billion a year. 

That is a vision for Gauteng that the DA wants to bring to provincial government after 7 May. 

We should triple our budget for doing business with SMME's. 

There is so much poverty and inequality in Joburg that we can't claim helping just 600 SMME's as a success, as Mayor Tau does. If each of these businesses employ 5 people that's only 3000 jobs when millions are unemployed.

If every metro in Gauteng joined the provincial government by tripling these budgets we could generate enough income to fund an entrepreneurial revolution in Gauteng. 

Today Gauteng is a place where the majority of young people are unemployed. We can do more to bring more South Africans into the economy. 

I do believe it is possible for entrepreneurs to lead growth and job creation in Gauteng.

It becomes possible when we build Opportunity Centres where anyone can access support for their ideas and businesses. 

It becomes possible when government expands its community supplier databases so that more business and more information reaches entrepreneurs. 

It becomes possible when we make it cheaper to bid for tenders, and when we stop corruption by making tender committees open to the public.

Government must work with our people, not against them. 

The Wi-fi hotspots Mayor Tau announced should just be the start of a much bigger comprehensive package of support to Gauteng residents.

Mayor Tau made the wi-fi rollout sound new and comprehensive but the elephant in the room is what happened tp the 900km of fibre optic cables he announced last year?

We know the tender was delayed and now this year all the Mayor is saying is there is a different wi-fi tender but only for libraries and some transport hubs. 

They say in Texas that applies to how Joburg is run: a place of big hats and very limited cattle. We speak of a world class city but our traffic lights don't work. We speak of a smart city but we are on the verge of a water supply crisis. We speak of a city that works but so many are unemployed. 

We speak of progress in public transport but in spite of having a surplus of more than R5 billion it is unfortunate that Rea Vaya phase 1 B was almost 2 years late (19 months). In spite of the promises that phase 1C would be entering construction phase by Jan 2014 there has still not been a single piece of soil turned.

People come to Gauteng from all over looking for opportunity.

This should be a City that helps to capitalize its people to build a better life. 

Are we tracking how expensive it is to run a business in joburg, are we examinining tarrifs on water and lights and road maintenance? The answer is no. Instead the City supported the ANC's e-tolling which makes it nearly impossible to grow a small business to a medium one.

We should pay suppliers on time. We should break down larger tenders into opportunities that smaller firms can compete for. We should identify office space that we can rent it out to small businesses for R1 a year. 

We should handover the land to the 220 000 families in Gauteng who are waiting for their title deeds. 

I come from Dobsonville Soweto and my family knows the value of having a title deed for your home. That title deed is the reason I can stand here today. 

Mayor Tau mentioned that the City owns R23 billion worth of land. On how much of that land have we built state-subsidized houses without giving people their title deed? We must give people not just houses but land in this City. 

Today 220 000 families are waiting for the economic freedom to invest, borrow and gain equity that comes with a title deed. Let's give it to them. But also today, there are people without a home or even the most basic services. 

Today there are 200 informal settlements in this City that Mayor Tau hasn't offered a plan for. 

We must not forget that some of the informal settlements in this City have been with us for 20 years of democracy. One would think formalizing these 200 communities would be central to Johannesburg's plans. 

Instead this year the City is not meeting basic service rollout targets 50 informal settlements.The people of Kya sands, can tell you the true state of the city.

Many people don't know this but Nkandla was paid with funds meant to deliver housing and basic services in Soweto.

The Public Protector report highlights that the funds for the upgrade of the Presidents residence had been taken from the housing budget for research into building on dolomitic land, as we see in Protea South. 

Further money for Nkandla came from inner city regeneration projects. These are funds Joburg could do with but losing money to corruption is the hallmark of Jacob Zuma's ANC. 

I have been to Nkandla, that project alone shows that President Zuma's cattle indeed have a better life than those of the people of Protea South. I do believe Gauteng can do more to bring basic services to informal settlements. 

We are working on 100km of water piping a year. Instead we need to be working on 300km of water piping a year to deliver water to all the people of Gauteng. Johannesburg Water has warned us all of the water crisis that is just one year away in this city. 

By 2015 we will not enough water to meets the needs of a growing Johannesburg. It's frankly amazing that Mayor Tau never even mentioned this in his speech. I believe we can radically increase the building of better sewage capacity in this City. 

We can meet the infrastructure needs and create jobs for thousands of people in Gauteng. In a city where hundreds of thousands are unemployed, the City of Joburg is not even meeting a 30 000 target for public works jobs.

As sewerage overflows, as our rivers get poisoned and as residents go without water we are failing to build the infrastructure fast enough. 

Let's get our people working. Let's scale up EPWP so that it employs thousands more people to build the infrastructure that allows clean water to run from the taps of every resident in Gauteng. 

I liked Mayor Tau's ideas about creating jobs through bringing electricity to more homes. The solar geyser idea is one I support, but they must be of a high quality and they must be made in Gauteng factories. 

It is extremely concerning that we fail to create thousands of jobs because these solar geysers could actually be coming from Taiwan.We want high-quality geysers that Gauteng residents are employed to make. 

The City of Joburg will not reach its full potential unless more jobs are created here. This is the place of lights but for too many of us it is a place of hopelessness and despair.

That is why so many people are on nyaope. We must not be ashamed to say that a family member has been touched by this terrible drug. 

The unemployment and hopelessness in so many communities drives young people to drugs. It creates an environment for drug lords to raise havoc in our neighbourhoods. We need a specialized Drug Unit in this City's Metro Police to fight these druglords. 

We must take back our communities. I challenge Mayor Tau today to take that big step. 

Create a Drug Unit in the Metro Police and let's fight these criminals. Let's fight for our communities back. Street for street, our CPF's and Neighbourhood watches will work with a JMPD Drug Unit to take our communities back. 

I have marched with the people of Eldorado Park. Together we marched on the druglords living comfortably in government-owned residential buildings. 

The people say we must evict the druglords from all government property. The place for criminals is in jail and through a JMPD Drug Unit we can make more convictions possible. 

The DA caucus in the City of Johannesburg will continue to the fight for more jobs, more delivery and more opportunities for the residents of this great place to live a better life.That has been the basis of our cause this term began and it will always be our cause going forward.

We believe that Joburg can be a place of greatness and a place of opportunity for all. May we never forget that it is always on behalf of the less fortunate, the less privileged and less powerful that we must fight. 

I would like to thank Mayor Tau as well for his collegiality. I wish him well as he completes his final term of office in preparation for a DA government in 2016.

Colleagues the reason we part here is because the forces of change are growing. The momentum, and the size and the power of this new majority is growing. The fight and the spirit within the people of Gauteng can never be overcome. 

Together we will fight for change, together we will fight for jobs. Amandla!

Issued by the DA, April 16 2014

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