The will of the people of Tshwane prevailed with today’s unsuccessful attempt by the ANC to unseat the legitimate DA-led multiparty coalition government.
I remain undeterred in the face of these motions of no confidence in which the ANC attempts to depose the City’s government only to re-establish their networks of patronage, corruption and plundering the City’s coffers.
We will not be deterred by these antics and will move forward by delivering services and building in this City.
Since the DA-led multiparty multi-party government took over, we have worked tirelessly over the last two years get the City of Tshwane back on track. To stabilize the finances of a City that had been treated like a personal piggy bank for the ANC.
In our first year in office we managed to double the City’s cash position, bring it back from the jaws of bankruptcy, moving from an inherited R2 billion deficit to an R704 operating surplus. In that first year, we also reduced unauthorized expenditure by over a billion rand and irregular expenditure by R100 million.
Additionally:
- We took a string of unlawful contracts and procurement irregularities on review which are valued in the billions; and
- We cut the 900 political appointees in the former administration.
We have turned the tide on poor service delivery – and in this new financial year we have been able to fund a capital budget which allocates the following to improved service delivery:
- R475 million on water and sanitation – leading to water connections to 12 600 households and Sewer connections to 3 943 households
- R982 million on electricity – leading to electricity connections to 6 800 households
- R994 million on roads and storm water leading to 50 km of new storm water networks and 56 km of new tarred roads, and
- R901 million for numerous housing projects.
We sold the lavish mayoral mansion of the previous ANC government for R5 million to build houses for poor residents, and we have awarded 1 800 bursaries to young people worth more than R34 million.
We are aware that there are unconfirmed reports of looming protest action. We encourage the people of Tshwane to not allow themselves to be used as political pawns to service a narrow political agenda.
We will continue to fight against corruption.
We will continue to speed up the delivery of basic services, and we will, above all, put the VIPs of Tshwane – the residents of Tshwane – first.
We will not be distracted by the political posturing and grandstanding of the ANC. We are forging ahead with our commitment to stabilize, revitalize and deliver to the people of Tshwane.
Let’s get back to work.
