Extracts from reply to state of the city debate - Tshwane metro

EXTRACTS FROM BRANDON TOPHAM’S SPEECH IN REPLY TO THE STATE OF THE CITY DEBATE

Service delivery in the Tshwane Metro is at an all time low!

The residents in Mamelodi East know it. Their storm water drains have not been cleared for years, causing a constant damming-up of water. They have asked for 4 years for their streets to be cleared but no one has listened. The kids enjoy floating a boat in their streets. Their parents do not enjoy wading through water to get to work nor are they happy knowing that dead rats and dirt have contaminated the water in which the children are playing.

In Phumolong non existent streets were washed away by heavy rains this week. After a decade this informal settlement still does not have any storm water drains or any other services. Thousands of residents continue to live in conditions way below that promised them by our Constitution.

Mrs Sathekge in Atterigeville knows it. She, like thousands of other residents, receive bills, for services she claims she did not use. The municipality has been completely unresponsive to her. She lives for a number of years now with no electricity due to the massive financial dispute with interest heaping up each month. She just wants to have the account corrected and not be liable for charges relating to a previous owner.

The Smith family from Jan Niemand Park know it.

For years they have been living next to a particularly dangerous part of the Moretela Spruit, where uncut bushes provide a haven for criminals and where Metro Police patrols are nowhere to be seen.

Shortly after I visited Mrs Smith this week, a woman was raped in that very neighbourhood.

These are the human stories behind the failure of the Tshwane Metro, how bad government becomes a burden to people; how it compromises their security and reduces their chances of a happy life.

These practical consequences have political causes. We know that the ruling party does not have the capability to turn this city government around.

We know that the mayor is in denial about the quality of service delivery to our residents, especially the poor.

While he praised those that laid the foundations of the city’s so-called success, he ignored the findings of a 2010 report by the Department of Cooperative Government that indicates that our city’s residents have the worst access of all metros to sanitation, electricity and refuse removal.

Only 61% of the original capital budget was spent in the last financial year, while the city is in serious need of extending its road network, installing infrastructure for service delivery and upgrading deteriorated public facilities.

Compared to Cape Town this is a dismal performance. For the previous financial year Cape Town spent R 5.146 billion on an area of 686 square kilometers, while the Tshwane Metro spent only R2.194 billion on an area of 2199 square kilometers. That means that Tshwane spent less than half of the money spent in an area that is more than three times the land mass of Cape Town.

The Metro Police have been victims of capital budget starvation, which has lead to a shortage of equipment and a miserable lack of visibility almost everywhere in the city.

In fact the Metro Police are mostly only seen in the CBD and yet they failed to prevent cable thieves from causing serious structural damage to electricity infrastructure.

The result was that electricity supply was cut off to essential institutions including the Pretoria Magistrates Court, the Tshwane Events Centre, Government departments and businesses.

The public frustration about inconvenience and traffic congestion aside, the economic loss to the city has a major knock-on effect which will be borne by the poorest residents of our city.

The DA is certainly determined to make a difference in this city.

Officials who are qualified and motivated to do their job will be empowered to do just that, and rewarded for their effort. We will not allow political manipulation to hold this city ransom with constant negotiations and delays.

This Metro must stretch every rand of public money, not only to give ratepayers’ their money’s worth but to fund service delivery for the poor and invest in essential infrastructure.

This Metro must raise more and spend capital budgets. This metro cannot let grants, such as those received for the implementation of the Bus Rapid Transport system be left unspent and the benefits forfeited.

Our Metro Police must be adequately equipped, present and visible in every corner of our city. They must fill the existing gap in the criminal justice system in our city. They must earn the trust of residents, which is sadly lacking at present.

More effort must be expended to combat corruption and prevent mismanagement. Wasted rental on unutilised office space and other administrative oversights is a drain on our resources.

Failure to conduct preventative maintenance leads to the escalation of expenses to the city, as evidenced by the failure to repair old oil-insulated electrical cables. This has now lead to the need to replace these old cables at an estimated cost of R20 million in the CBD.

The more money wasted due to corruption and mismanagement, the less money is available to provide access to water, electricity sanitation, refuse removal services and an integrated transport network.

The excuse given for the collapse of the Nokeng and Kungwini municipalities into the Tshwane Metro, is that these smaller entities did not have access to a sufficient revenue base.

But Nokeng and Kungwini did not fail because of a lack of revenue. They were run into the ground by leaders who wasted that revenue: on luxury cars, office refurbishments, lavish receptions and other expenses not related to the central role of government.

To reduce corruption and increase accountability, the Tshwane Metro, like in Cape Town, should open its Tender Adjudication to the public. The same applies to the meetings of the Executive Mayoral Committee.

The DA will open up government and bring it as close as possible to the people.

We will not ignore the pleas of the community for government that is accessible and responsive. We believe in local government. To assist in this regard we will ensure that sub-councils are formed to give the people of Nokeng and Kungwini a local voice.

Our new municipality will cover a massive geographical area of 6368 square kilometers. Geographically this will make the Tshwane Metro the third largest city in the world, after New York and Tokyo.

With a population of over 2,000,000 and almost 750,000 households our responsibility to deliver has become an enormous emergency.

To overcome this challenge we need to change our approach and we need to turn around years of failed service delivery. Only clean, effective government can turn the city around. The DA knows how and we are ready for this responsibility.

The cost of apathy is too great

Yesterday morning I visited St Columbus Catholic Church in Capital Park to answer parishioners’ questions about the upcoming local government election.

In a truly commendable move the Catholic Church has encouraged parishes in South Africa to invite local political leaders to answer the questions of parishioners ahead of the 18 May poll.

I told those in attendance that my and the DA’s biggest opponent in this election will not be any other party, but political apathy.

The nagging belief held by many voters that their votes can no longer make a difference is a complete and utter fallacy.

In fact the price of buying into political apathy has never been so costly, because the opportunity for meaningful political change in our city has never been so good.

The difference between support for opposition parties and the ruling African National Congress in the Tshwane Metro at 2006 local government election was a mere 6%.

The DA merely needs to turn out the support it received in the 2009 general election and convince a small number of previous ANC voters to make the change, and then we can win the city.

Let us be honest. Change starts at the ballot box.

Voting one party out of power and another into power is what makes democracy work. It drives up political will and political will drives service delivery.

The DA had the political will to deliver in Cape Town and it did deliver.

Five years after Capetonians replaced an ANC government with a DA government, residents have the best access to water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal of all major metros in South Africa.

Today the Tshwane Metro faces even worse challenges than Cape Town did in 2006, but I am confident that the same principles which the DA applied to government in Cape Town can be just as successfully applied in our city.

We need to open up government. Those that receive tenders must be able to do the job, meetings of the Executive Mayoral Committee must be open to the public and municipal sub-councils must be created to bring government as close as possible to the people.

We need to get the city’s finances in order.

Every Rand has to be spent wisely so that we can invest in training and equipping our Metro Police, building roads and extending service delivery infrastructure to every corner of our vast municipality.

We need to enable job-creating growth. A city with safe, well-maintained roads that reach every part of its geographical area, with secure electricity supply and leaders who are business-friendly and open to new ideas will attract investors and create jobs.

The DA can deliver on these challenges. There is no reason for apathy on 18 May.

The task that lies ahead is too great and the opportunity for real political change, for clean, effective government that delivers services for all, is too good to give up now.

Human Rights - A long way to go

I visited Mamelodi East yesterday to see for myself once again the problems afflicting some of the poorest people living in one of South Africa’s worst governed municipalities. Mamelodi is an old and well established suburb in our Capital city.

Unfortunately what I saw and heard from residents confirmed all of the startling facts about poor service delivery in the Tshwane Metro. Very often the human element is lost in the rhetoric and sloganism which characterise election campaigns.

Tshwane’s heinous distinction among South Africa’s six metropolitan municipalities, as the one where residents have the worst access to sanitation was highlighted in an informal settlement called Phumulong in Ward 40.

Some of Phumulong’s residents say that they have been living there for nearly 10 years without any attempt by successive ANC administrations to install basic service infrastructure.

I was struck by the supreme irony of our politics as I walked the mud streets which are in places inaccessible to most vehicles. You can not but notice the refuse, the lack of storm water drains and other basic infrastructure.

A few months ago the so-called toilet saga in Cape Town become the biggest, if not the only, point of major criticism against the DA governed municipality since its election in 2006.

Here in Phumolong the issue was not a municipality that did not erect roofs and walls over flushing toilets, but no flushing toilets at all, for up to a decade!

Will the Human Rights Commission visit this community to inspect the miserable, neglectful conditions which this community live in?

The challenge for us now is to convince voters like these that they their vote can actually make a difference, that bad government can be voted out of power and replaced by a new one which delivers for all.

This is not an insurmountable challenge as the DA only needs a small swing to route out the ANC and sweep to victory under a DA lead coalition in the Tshwane metro. This swing has occurred and is evident in the voices of residents in Mamelodi East who are saying “Where is the ANC’s promised change. We are tired of waiting”

Voters are noticing that DA government is different from ANC government. It is only a matter of time before the majority embrace the fact that where the DA governs, it governs better and delivers for all people. The DA is the only hope for the millions of South Africans living in conditions way below those set out in the bill of rights. Human Rights day is a fitting day for us to reflect on the urgent life enhancing changes which we still need to bring about in South Africa.