DA seeks High Court intervention to halt Tshwane City closure

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has approached the North Gauteng High Court to halt the unlawful actions by opposition parties to deactivate the DA-led City of Tshwane Municipality over the past few months.

The DA has filed papers, and we are confident that our case is strong in terms of the law and strong regarding the facts.

Please click here for the Founding Affidavit.

Tshwane is not dysfunctional.

The issue at hand is that for months the ANC and EFF have continually collapsed Council meetings with their disruptive behavior and walkouts.

Nevertheless services continue to be delivered, despite the Council not being unable to form a quorum due to the walkouts.

When it comes to truly dysfunctional Councils, look at the ANC-led Emfuleni Municipality where sewer is flowing in the streets and Eskom recently got the Sheriff to seize assets to pay for millions of rands of unpaid bills.

And what about the Merafong, Rand West City and Lesedi Local Municipalities that are corrupt and way beyond dysfunctional?

Why does Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) MEC, Lebogang Maile not intervene there?

The answer is simple.

These municipalities are being run by the ANC, whereas the City of Tshwane is run by a DA-led coalition.

The DA’s court action is about defending the rights of one sphere of government that is a local council, from being taken out by an ANC provincial government.

The truth is that after 2021, there will be dozens more councils around the country where the ANC has lost to minority governments.

The Constitutional Court has made it clear that an intervention by one sphere of government for example a province in the affairs of another for example a Council is highly circumscribed.

National and Provincial spheres of government are not entitled to usurp the functions of the municipal sphere except in exceptional circumstances.

The DA will argue that no exceptional circumstances exist for intervention in the City of Tshwane.

All that has happened is an abuse of the processes by MEC Maile and his henchmen.

The DA will do its upmost to overturn the decision to dissolve Tshwane.

We will succeed in carrying out a defined plan of action to deliver high quality services to the residents of Tshwane over the next 15 months.

Please click here to download a photo.

DA calls on MEC Mazibuko to declare Gauteng Traffic Police an essential service

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is calling on the Gauteng MEC for Community Safety, Faith Mazibuko to declare Gauteng Traffic Police an essential service to ensure a 24-hour monitoring of Gauteng freeways.

This follows the MEC’s announcement after the State of the Province Address (SOPA) that they will employ 400 additional traffic police officers over the next three years to increase visibility and road safety on a 24-hour basis.

Employing an additional 400 traffic officers will not ensure the safety of motorists on our roads during the night because Gauteng Traffic Police do not work night shifts but only work until 22h00.

This clearly indicates that the MEC is misleading the people of Gauteng as there will be no 24-hour patrol of our roads until the Gauteng Traffic Police are declared an essential service.

There is an ongoing labour dispute between the union and the Road Traffic Management Corporation (RTMC) that is delaying the process of declaring the Gauteng Traffic Police an essential service.

It is high that MEC Mazibuko intervenes in order to speed up the process of resolving this labour dispute.

The DA will continue to put pressure on MEC Mazibuko to declare the Gauteng Traffic Police an essential service. This will ensure that the Gauteng Traffic Police provides 24-hour road safety services; it will reduce the excessive expenditure on overtime; improve the working conditions and increase benefits for the traffic police. This will also have a positive impact on reducing crime and increasing road safety particularly during the night.

MEC Maile snubs Finance Portfolio Committee meeting, instead focuses on playing politics in Tshwane

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is disappointed that the MEC for Human Settlements, Lebogang Maile opted not to appear before the Finance Portfolio Committee on Wednesday.

MEC Maile disregarded the summons to appear before the Finance Portfolio committee, where he was expected to explain the poor performance of his department for the 3rd quarter of the 2019/2020 financial year.

Currently his department owes service providers R1.217 billion for an array of services rendered.

Should these service providers not be paid before the end of the current financial year, it will have a negative impact on the department’s budget for the 2020/2021 financial year.

This also shows the blatant disregard that the MEC and his department have for SMMEs who are dependent on being paid for services rendered so that they in turn can pay their employees.

In addition, this department only managed to build 6 903 housing units compared to the target of building 11 496 housing units for the quarter under review.

Furthermore, the National Department of Human Settlements has stopped the transfer of R250 million for the Gauteng Human Settlements Development Grant, because the department has failed to spend its allocated budget.

Instead of focusing on fixing his department, MEC Maile is spending all his time and energy in Tshwane, trying to fix something that is not broken.

Makhura’s roadshow backfires dismally

The Democratic Alliance (DA) has noted the roadshow using taxpayers’ money to host a propaganda war, by the Premier and his cabinet.

It has become evident that these meetings have turned into ANC rallies where Makhura and his cabinet waste provincial government money to mislead the public regarding Tshwane, instead of focusing on municipal service delivery issues in the province as a whole.

Community members flocked to the venues to address their own personal issues relating to their ANC ward councillors, Eskom, jobs, and other empty promises that were made by the ANC at a provincial level.

Its important to see these meetings for what they are. It’s not about putting the people first, but rather an attempt by the Premier and his cabinet to get a mandate from structures within the ANC to continue with their political games with the aim of getting their hands on the coffers of the financially stable Tshwane in the run-up to the 2021 local government elections.

Once again, residents are being used as a means to an end.

The DA and the residents of Tshwane are tired of the ongoing political games and call on the Premier to stop the politicking and rather focus on service delivery failures across Gauteng, of which there are many.

If the Premier is serious about putting the people first, then he should escort his MECs to Emfuleni, Mogale, Sedibeng and Ekurhuleni to address the collapsed services in these areas.

Court dispute over charges against CEO of Far East Rand Hospital

The Gauteng Health Department is embroiled in a legal battle to take disciplinary action against Dr Zachariah Mathaba, the CEO of the Far East Rand Hospital, who was allegedly grossly dishonest for falsely claiming overtime pay for two years.

This was revealed yesterday by Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku in an oral reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

Dr Mathaba was first charged on 7 January last year when he was working at the Thelle Mogoerane Hospital. According to Masuku, he won an urgent application in the Labour Court against his suspension, and the Department is now legally challenging this.

Meanwhile, Mathaba was appointed as the new CEO of Far East Rand Hospital in November last year despite the cloud hanging over his head. Masuku says that this appointment went ahead as the charges against him were not finalized.

It is hugely unsatisfactory that this matter has dragged on and not been resolved earlier. Masuku concedes that it is a “difficult situation” and he is also awaiting a report from the Public Service Commission concerning more information in this matter.

This case highlights the Department’s generally poor handling of labour relations. All disciplinary cases should be professionally handled to ensure a speedy resolution.

Gauteng homeless at high risk of contracting coronavirus

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is deeply concerned that the homeless people are at a high risk of contracting the coronavirus.

This follows the recent outbreak of the coronavirus where at least seven people in the country have been tested positive thus far.

Gauteng is amongst the two provinces in the country that have recorded cases of the coronavirus.

Both the provincial and national government have identified hospitals to deal with this virus, however nothing has been mentioned about the homeless.

The homeless are the most vulnerable to the coronavirus which spreads primarily through respiratory droplets coughed or sneezed from an infected person.

The homeless people who mostly survive on selling recycling materials, collecting scrap and eating from the dustbins are at a risk of contracting coronavirus by touching dirty tissues from the dustbins.

Furthermore, in order to prevent this virus from spreading people should wash their hands with soap or sanitiser regularly and for homeless people this will be impossible as they cannot afford these materials.

If a person has contracted the virus, they should be isolated from other people; they should rest and recuperate at home. This will be a challenge for homeless people because they do not have shelter.

For far too long the DA has been pleading with the ANC-led Gauteng administration to offer vacant old buildings to homeless community as shelters.

There are not enough shelters for the homeless because the government has consistently failed to provide adequate resources to NGOs which render this most needed service.

The DA will table questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to ascertain what plans are in place to ensure that the homeless in the province are also protected from contracting the coronavirus.

GPG faces uphill battle to keep wage bill at 60%

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng notes the announcement by the MEC for Finance, Nomantu Nkomo Ralehoko that the public servant’s wage bill will be capped at 60%, and that no employee salaries will be cut. This is also an undertaking she gave to the unions.

Currently, the wage bill according to the MEC is at 55%, however, the DA can confirm that the actual wage bill is at 58% or R82,568bn. This is according to the Gauteng Provincial Spending per economic classification details for the 2020/21 Financial Year.

The MEC has also indicated that she has directed all departments to conduct a skills audit to ascertain, exactly what skills each employee has.

This will help ensure that the right person with the right skills is employed by government and will also give the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) an idea of what and where critical skills vacancies exist.

The DA, however, is concerned that once the skills audit is complete, the GPG will not be able to keep the wage bill below 60%.

Currently one of the stumbling blocks in filling critical skill vacancies is that government does not offer a competitive salary. This is one of the reasons why there is a severe shortage of Big Data Analysts and Cyber Security Specialists in the e-Government department for example.

We note increased budgets allocated for consultants in five departments of the Gauteng Provincial Government, of which the Department of Roads and Transport had the biggest increase. This is also indicative of a shortage of suitable skills internally and must be addressed urgently by the skills audit as called for by the MEC.

The establishment of additional advisory panels by departments and the Office of the Premier will also mean that more salaries will have to be paid. Take for example the 4th Industrial Revolution Advisory panel that will be established in the Office of the Premier.

I will be tabling questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to ascertain when the skills audit will commence with end dates,  and what measures are being put in place to ensure that critical skills vacancies are filled without inflating the wage bill. The DA will also be monitoring this process to ensure that qualified and experienced personnel are employed.

8 Esidimeni patients still missing

Eight patients who were transferred from Life Esidimeni in 2016 are still missing despite the efforts of the Gauteng Health Department to find them.

This was revealed yesterday by Gauteng Health MEC Bandile Masuku in an oral reply to my questions in the Gauteng Legislature.

Only one patient has been found since August last year and is currently at the Waverley Care Centre.

Masuku said that tracing information had been obtained from Home Affairs and SASSA, and home visits had also been done. Difficulties include a lack of information on patients as Life Esidimeni could only provide files on 4 of the 8 missing patients – dates of birth for some patients were missing, and contact numbers for family were incorrect.

I fear that the fate of the remaining 8 patients may never be known as it is now nearly four years since they were sent from Life Esidimeni to illegal NGOs which may have covered up some deaths.

There have been 144 confirmed deaths, but we may never know the true Esidimeni death toll if the fate of the missing patients remains a mystery.

Incompetent MEC Maile fails to spend human settlements budget

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is dismayed that the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements has once again failed to spend its allocated budget.

This has resulted in the national Department of Human Settlements stopping the transfer of R250 million for the Gauteng Human Settlements Development Grant.

This was revealed in the recent Government Gazette Volume 656, number 43050 published on 28 February 2020.

The Government Gazette can be accessed here:

According to Section 19 of the Division of Revenue Act, 2019, the Human Settlements Development Grant can be stopped where there is substantial underspending on the allocated budget and when there is failure to comply with the Municipal Finance Management Act.

This department has a reputation of failing to spend its human settlements grant.

This is also evident in the department’s third quarter report for the 2019/20 financial year.

According to the report, the department underspent by R7,007 million on Programme Two: Housing Needs, Research and Planning. The department only spent R4,157 million which is 37 percent of the R11, 234 million of the allocated budget for the third quarter. This means that the department underspent by 63 percent on this programme.

The spending to date in this programme is 29 percent of the R40 million annual budget.

This is unacceptable and can no longer be tolerated considering that this department is headed by MEC Maile who portrays himself as competent when in fact this is not the case.

Instead MEC Maile is destabilising a municipality that is delivering services while neglecting his mandate of ensuring that our people have access to adequate housing.

This clearly indicates that he is incompetent and not fit to head this department.

Its high time that MEC Maile must concentrate on executing his department’s mandate to deliver houses instead of spending time in Tshwane.

The DA calls on the Gauteng Premier, David Makhura to act against MEC Maile as he has committed a crime against the people of Gauteng by under spending on the allocated budget.

DA seeks clarity over status of Moloto Road

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is calling on the Gauteng MEC for Roads and Transport, Jacob Mamabolo to provide clarity on whether or not the Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) has published their intention to handover its section of Moloto Road to the South African National Roads Agency (Sanral).

The intention of GPG to hand over its section of Moloto Road to Sanral has to be gazetted so that Sanral has the legal authority to proceed with the upgrades of the road.

The DA will be writing to MEC Mamabolo, to give us more clarity on whether or not a notice has been published in the Government Gazette, stating GPG’s intention to hand over its portion of the Moloto Road to Sanral.

This dangerous road is known as the ‘road of death’ due to the high accident rate.

This delay means that the loss of life on this road will continue. Much needed upgrades cannot be done by Sanral until the road is completely handed over to them. Currently the GPG does not have the expertise or the budget to do the much-needed upgrades on this road.

Last year, after pressure from the DA, MEC Mamabolo announced that Gauteng will be handing over the Gauteng section of Moloto Road to Sanral.

The DA will continue to put pressure on the MEC to ensure that GPG hands over Moloto Road to Sanral, so that the upgrades to the road can begin as a matter of urgency.