SPEECH BY THE EXECUTIVE MAYOR OF CAPE TOWN ON THE OCCASION OF A FULL COUNCIL MEETING ON WEDNESDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2013

Good morning, goeiedag, molweni.

Mr. Speaker, I would like us to take a moment of silence to remember the women who have recently lost their lives to gender-based violence and rape. They include:

Anene Booysen;

Charmaine Mare;

Melanie Bukkies;

Jo-Anne Diane van Schalkwyk;

And Ge-Audrey Green, whose funeral I attended.

Thank you.

I know that our remembrance brings little comfort to those who have lost their loved ones.

And the list that I have read out here today is only a fraction of those who have suffered some abuse in the past few weeks.

But those who have left us should know that we are doing all that we can to change our society and mobilise it against this hatred.

I know that words are sometimes of little comfort.

They were of little comfort to me when my own baby sister was raped and murdered years ago.

But I also know that it is only when you are willing to maintain constant pressure that seemingly entrenched forces will begin to yield.

I call on councillors, as leaders in their communities, to bring that pressure to bear on our society.

We will continue to provide the resources to our Metro Police to enable us to train members of the community to fight domestic violence.

And our social development programmes to raise awareness of identifying incidents and how to respond to them in the context of gender violence will soon be activated in communities in all districts.

But it is councillors themselves who must carry the truth into our communities: the truth that boys and girls, men and women, are to be treated with equal respect and that neither one is more important than the other.

The truth that women are as valuable as men and that the patriarchal society where women knew their place is at an end.

The truth that the struggle for human rights and dignity are struggles that must be fought with constant vigilance.

I call on all communities to break the silence of women and child abuse.

I call on communities to discard the selfish notion that speaking out will bring shame on themselves as individuals and on their families.

I want all councillors to be change agents in their wards and to lead by example.

It is only through measured interventions that we can begin to see a lasting change in attitudes and norms.

Mr. Speaker, the last time I stood before this Council I addressed another tragedy.

At the beginning of this year, a terrible fire razed the homes of almost 800 families in BM Section in Khayelitsha.

In response to this tragedy, the City and the Provincial Government of the Western Cape undertook to work together to ease the plight of the people of BM Section.

As this Council knows, we have committed ourselves to the long-term plan of relocating all of the affected families to Bosasa , Mfuleni. 

The Bosasa site, once all due legal processes have been completed by October this year, will eventually become a formalised area.

Those who will move to Bosasa will be provided with a site with a temporary top structure, and with security of tenure.

Those individuals who qualify for a subsidy would be able to form PHP groups and construct permanent top structures.

In the interim, the City has identified two sites for Temporary Resettlement Areas (TRAs) for the affected families to be relocated to until the completion of the Bosasa site.

Working together with the Provincial Government, the City has established a TRA on a site adjacent to the OR Tambo Hall.

Approximately 330 families will be accommodated on this site. We are grateful for the donation of 191 top structures to be utilised on this site.

The City, as part of our commitment to being a Caring City, will provide a further 141 structures for use on this site.

We are working tirelessly with Gift of the Givers and Ikhayalami and with their relevant contractors to fast track the construction of these top structures.

The remaining 400 families are being accommodated in BM Section, on the site of where the fire took place.

The City has ensured that this site has been levelled and that service tracks have been installed so as to grant better access to emergency and other vehicles in the future.

Improved services will also be installed for these families.

The City is providing enhanced emergency kits to those residents returning to this site.

The City has thus far provided 117 kits of this nature to beneficiaries and 85 such structures have been erected.

We are pushing our resources to their very boundaries and I am confident that we are doing everything that we can to help the people of BM Section recover.

This roll-out is part of our commitment to being a Caring and Inclusive City.

In this regard, in this financial year, we have spent 57% of the R18 billion allocated for direct service delivery in the city on the poor.

Indeed, the City has increased its targeted spending on the poor every year over the past six years.

Because of that increase, the number of toilets provided in informal settlements has more than doubled in that time to just over 34 000 in the 2011/2012 financial year.

In 2011/2012, the budget provision for sewerage infrastructure was at R130 million.

R20,2 million was spent on providing water to informal settlements last financial year and, since 2006, almost 20 000 new electricity connections have been made.

And so I know that we are changing this city into a place for everyone.

But in order for that transformation to take place, we need everyone to be involved in our programme of governance and to help us maintain public facilities and amenities.

Indeed, access to services is a right and the infrastructure that provides for that right belongs to all.

That is why it is particularly painful when acts of vandalism or other illegal actions force us to reallocate resources away from new projects back to repair old ones.

Allow me to give you an example.

In Khayelitsha, as part of our pro-active repairs programme, the City had, by September last year, installed all lights with a life span of five years.

However, within approximately six months, only 35% of these lights were working.

The reasons for this were largely due to illegal electricity connections or significant acts of vandalism.

But we are undeterred.

We will continue our repairs on Mew Way, Pama Road, Spine Road and Landsdowne Road.

Vandalism is a problem that affects the entire city.

Recently, newly constructed MyCiTi bus stops in Atlantis and on the Atlantic Seaboard were vandalised.

The result will be a diversion of funds from the next roll-out of the transportation system to fixing phases of the project that were completed a while ago.

That leads to delays in roll-out, which means delays in addressing the spatial legacy of apartheid planning.

Indeed, Mr. Speaker, let me remind this Council of what we have spent on vandalism in this financial year to date:

Just over R115 million related to sewers; just over R7 million related to water and sanitation; just under R6 million related to electricity.

And, most recently, the traffic signals at the Plattekloof/N7 intersection were vandalised; while the traffic signals at the intersections of Landsdowne and Eisleben, Eisleben and Sheffield, Sheffield and Vietnam, and Sheffield and Olympic Park were all damaged during protest actions.

This damage will cost the City almost R1 million.

In total, that is almost R130 million that we have thus far spent in deviating from existing programmes this year- a sum of money that could have transformed entire communities.

Indeed, the scale of the problem of vandalism was recently addressed by President Jacob Zuma in his State of the Nation Address when he said, ‘It is unacceptable when people's rights are violated by perpetrators of violent actions, such as actions that lead to injury and death of persons, damage to property and the destruction of valuable public infrastructure.'

Vandals only set back the project of building a city that is a true home to all.

Mr Speaker, with reference to the Athlone Power Station tender, I informed this chamber on 31 January 2013 that the City had written to Aurecon and was awaiting their response on various issues pertaining to the tender process concerned.

The City received Aurecon's response on 31 January 2013. 

We subsequently sought further legal advice in light of the representations made by Aurecon. 

After careful consideration of all the relevant facts and circumstances together with the legal advice received, the City has resolved to proceed with an application to the High Court to have the tender process reviewed and the awarding of the tender set aside. 

The City is always mindful of the costs and risks associated with court action.

However, in the interests of transparency and legal certainty, the City believes that the correct course of action is for the High Court to pronounce on the validity or otherwise of the Athlone Power Station tender.   

I have accordingly instructed the City's legal team to begin with the preparation of an application to court which I can confirm has already commenced. 

The disclosure of the forensic report shall shortly become a matter of public record once the City files its application with the High Court.

I can also report to this chamber that the disciplinary action involving certain City officials who were involved in awarding the tender is progressing in accordance with the City's disciplinary codes and procedures. 

Finally, let me say that the investigation, conducted by an independent and well-known firm of forensic investigators, revealed no evidence of either fraud or corruption.

I would therefore ask that all political parties refrain from playing politics with this issue and making inaccurate and inflammatory statements on this matter.

Mr Speaker, I wish to advise the chamber on the progress made in the Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood Development investigation (SUUN). 

This chamber is aware that the City commissioned an external service provider to conduct an investigation into certain issues pertaining to the project. 

The service provider's report was made available to the City at the beginning of the month. 

The report has made various findings and recommendations in relation to the project.

The City has subsequently sought legal advice in relation to the findings and recommendations and shall be meeting with its legal team in the coming weeks to determine the way forward.  

Let me also report to this Council that our preparations for the World Design Capital 2014 (WDC2014) are proceeding well with a number of related events this week.

As you know, this week is the Design Indaba and we will be painting the clock tower at the V and A Waterfront yellow to mark the approaching onset of WDC 2014.

Tomorrow, at the Design Indaba, we will officially launch our call for proposals for the WDC2014 and open the Capital's official stand- the next formal step of getting design hardwired into the very make-up of the metro.

I am confident that, by helping us see our challenges from different perspectives, design will help us unlock the social and economic potential of this city.

For our part, our own programmes are assisting us achieve this social change already.

Indeed, I am pleased to say that our procurement processes have seen a continued high degree of City business with Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (Triple B, Double E) businesses.

In the second quarter last year, the number of Triple B, Double E businesses was 1491, or 56% of the service providers used.

A total of 41 502 purchase order was issued to the Triple B, Double E vendors, or R1,9 billion for the period.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Supply Chain Management, whose work and procedures are helping us give life to our values, including the promotion of economic redress in Cape Town.

In conclusion Mr. Speaker, I believe that we are making great strides to change the lived realities of Capetonians and the structural nature of our economy and, as a result, of our society.

That social change brings with it the edge of history, whose tremendous force we are balancing with our governance agenda to create a different future for this city.

But the pressure required in maintaining that force, the critical mass that is necessary to implement a lasting change in our homes, in our neighbourhoods, and in our communities- that requires us all.

Thank you, baie dankie, enkosi.

Issued by the City of Cape Town, February 27 2013

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