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Maile has no plans to support municipalities to procure electricity from IPPs

Our residents are once again suffering through another round of load-shedding simply because the State-Owned Entity (SOE) Eskom is just not up to the task of providing a regular supply of electricity to the country.

In addition, it is very worrying that the Gauteng Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) has no intention of assisting municipalities in the province to procure electricity from Independent Power Producers (IPPs).

This information was revealed to me in a reply to my written questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) to the MEC for COGTA, Lebogang Maile. According to the MEC, the department will not be providing any support to municipalities as Section 154 of the Constitution makes provision for municipalities to do this on their own.

However, given the current state of our municipalities especially the local and district municipalities, it would be prudent for MEC Maile, to provide any assistance they may need to procure additional electricity that will at least provide some protection from load shedding.

Procuring electricity from IPPs is of vital importance, especially since the MEC for Economic Development, Parks Tau admitted that around 122 500 jobs have been lost in this province to the continued load-shedding.

The DA is demanding that MEC Maile together with other municipalities follow the lead taken by the City of Johannesburg Mayor, Mpho Phalatse in holding an energy summit. This is crucial if we want our struggling municipalities like Emfuleni and Merafong to become financially more secure as a continued supply of electricity is crucial to keep the wheels of any economy turning.

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#NoFutureBudget: 2022/2023 does not do much to improve basic service delivery to Gauteng residents

HYBRID HOUSE SITTING – Wednesday, 25 May 2022

Gauteng residents are in desperate need of a province that has a growing economy which offers a conducive environment to attract private sector investment. This can only be done if our government is serious about rooting out corruption within its ranks.

Many of our girl children miss school for days because they do not have access to sanitary towels. The Gauteng government does offer some assistance in the form of dignitary packs, but the harsh reality is that it is not distributed to our girl children in need.

Access to dignified housing remains a key challenge for our residents in the province. Many of our residents are still living in backyards and do not have access to proper basic services like sanitation and electricity.

While this budget on paper caters to the needs of our residents, there is however no hope for the future of our residents as it will not be spent on the programmes that are intended to uplift and provide dignity to our residents.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng delivered its position on the 2022/23 budget votes for the Office of the Premier, Department of Social Development, Department of Human Settlements and Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).

Below are the speeches delivered during today’s budget vote debates in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL):

Office of the Premier

Gauteng residents can no longer afford to foot the bill for corruption. It is high time that the anti-corruption frameworks translate into action.

See speeches here:

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Department of Human Settlements

Human Settlements budget fails to set out a plan for a better future

See the speech here:
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Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Gauteng residents continue to suffer as municipalities continue to regress

See the speech here:
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Department of Social Development

Gauteng residents continue to suffer while the Department of Social Development can’t pull itself together

See speeches here:
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Delays in completing Emfuleni ECD centres negatively impact learning and development

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is calling on both the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Lebogang Maile and the Gauteng MEC for Social Development, Morakane Mosupyoe to speed-up the completion of the Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres in the Emfuleni Local Municipality.

There have been unnecessary delays in completing the following ECD centres; Boipatong ECD, Bophelong ECD, Evaton ECD and Sharpeville ECD. This greatly concerns the DA, as children in these areas are denied opportunities to learn and develop at a younger age.

ECD centres, particularly in the townships, plays a crucial role to serve children from families who are socially, physically, and economically segregated.

According to MEC Maile, there are four ECD centres that have been built in Emfuleni in the past 10 years, that are still incomplete and non-operational.

MEC Maile was responding to my written questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature.

According to the MEC, the construction of the ECDs began on 15 February 2014 with Bophelong ECD, followed by the Sharpeville ECD on 29 October 2015, and the Boipatong and Evaton ECDs on 18 January 2016.

Evaton and Bophelong ECD projects are complete, with only land re-zoning and occupation certificates outstanding.

This clearly indicates that these two projects do not comply with the standard building regulations, hence they have not yet been issued with occupational certificates.

The Boipatong ECD is also incomplete with construction still outstanding in one building. The progress has been halted due to the finding of the irregular appointment of the contractor from the Auditor-General’s report.

Due to the delays in completing the Sharpeville ECD project, certain sections of the building have deteriorated requiring further maintenance.

I conducted oversight inspection to the Bophelong ECD, the Boipatong ECD and the Sharpeville ECD, where I found that these ECDs are in a terrible state and lack proper regular maintenance. The pavements are full of weeds and big trees needing urgent removal. The building structure is deteriorating, and the ceiling is starting to fall off. The taps, geysers and electrical cables have been stolen at the Sharpeville ECD, yet there is a security company hired to safeguard the premises.

For far too long, the DA has been warning the Gauteng Provincial Government that delays in completing projects will result in incurring more costs and the projects are more likely to become targets for vandalism and corruption.

The DA will continue to put pressure both on MEC Maile and MEC Mosupyoe to ensure that these four ECDs are completed and handed over to Emfuleni for full utilisation by the community so that our children are well-placed to pursue their learning opportunities in later years.

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Slovo Park and Crosby residents still waiting for in-situ upgrades as winter approaches

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is calling on the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and Human Settlements, Lebogang Maile to urgently prioritise the allocation of a budget for the implementation of the in-situ upgrade for Slovo Park and Crosby Informal Settlements in Johannesburg. 

The DA has learnt with disappointment that budget limitations have had an impact on the upgrade programme which has caused delays in the implementation of the project. The programme will be undertaken once the budget has been made available.

This was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) and Human Settlements, Lebogang Maile in a written reply to my questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).

According to MEC Maile, the informal settlement has been identified for in-situ upgrade in the 2019/2020 financial year through the Upgrade of Informal Settlement Programme (UISP).

The 2019/2020 financial year has come and gone yet nothing has been done.

The project was planned in two phases as an in-situ upgrade and Green Fields which will yield 1832 units.

The DA welcomed the project as it was going to uplift the living conditions of the residents of Slovo Park residents and would alleviate the tremendous strain on infrastructure faced by Crosby residents.

The residents of Slovo Park Informal Settlement and Crosby residents have suffered appalling neglect for more than two decades and they had hope that their lives would change when they were promised the in-situ upgrade by the ANC-led government which has not yet materialised.

Due to Slovo Park having no infrastructure in place, dozens of illegal electricity connections are made all along Ashanti street in Crosby and Harmony Road in Coronationville , causing overloading and causes the outages. During the DA-led City of Johannesburg administration, additional electricity capacity was initiated by starting the electricity infrastructure phase one upgrade. When the ANC took over Johannesburg in 2019, the DA continued the fight for additional capacity, but the ANC government has failed to allocate this additional budget which was set to happen during the DA-led administration.

The DA is also concerned that winter is upon us and the residents of Crosby yet again will have to suffer with daily outages lasting several hours which have led to several fights amongst the residents of Slovo Park and Crosby. It is so sad to see that people have to go daily for hours at a time without electricity.

Delays in implementing these upgrades clearly indicates that the ANC-led government cares little about the plight of residents.

The DA will continue to put pressure on MEC Maile to prioritise allocating budget for the upgrades of Slovo Park Informal Settlement and applying pressure on the City of Johannesburg to increase electricity capacity for Crosby residents to improve their living conditions. All our people deserve to live in dignified housing that have access to basic necessities such as water, electricity and sanitation as stipulated by the constitution.

Local Government Elections are coming up in 2021! Visit check.da.org.za to check your voter registration status.

 

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DA calls for urgent investigation into allegations of Sedibeng top officials soliciting R1 million bribe

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is calling on the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Lebogang Maile to urgently investigate allegations that Sedibeng top officials solicited a R1million bribe from Mafoko Security Patrols PTY (LTD).

The DA is in possession of a letter written by the Mafoko Security Patrol Regional Manager, Kgalaleo Frank Machete, dated 24th September 2020 addressed to the late Sedibeng District Municipal Manager, Stanley Khanyile.

The letter states that they are reporting the following Sedibeng officials; Motsoaledi Makhutle, who is now the Acting Municipal Manager, Kajal Wiese who is now the Acting Chief Financial Officer for Sedibeng District Municipality, as well as Motsomi Mathe and Thomas Mkaza who are no longer working at the Sedibeng District Municipality and are now working for a certain municipality in Free State.

It is alleged that on 20th April 2017 these officials held a meeting with members of Mafoko Security Patrols at Vereeniging Airport and then solicited a bribe of R1 million from Mafoko Security Patrols.

The officials entered into an agreement with Mafoko Security Patrols that the money will be paid back during the existence of the contract that Mafoko Security Patrols had with Sedibeng District Municipality.

Mafoko Security Patrols allegedly paid R800 000, 00 to Motsoaledi Makhutle and Kajal Wiese, the money delivered in two tranches of R500 000.00 and R300 000.00 in cash on two different dates.

Mafoko Security Patrols reported the matter to the late Municipal Manager, Stanley Khanyile after the contract had ended because they did not receive any payment from the officials as per their agreement.

A meeting was held with all the parties involved, including the Municipal Manager in November 2018, to find ways on how the money would be paid back to Mafoko Security Patrols.

The letter was a follow-up on the meeting requesting the Municipal Manager to intervene and ensure that Mafoko Security Patrols are paid back their money.

This is one of many examples of gross corruption that has been occurring and continue to occur in the Sedibeng District Municipality under the ANC-led administration.

This clearly indicates that Mafoko Security Patrol did not win all tenders in an open and transparent manner. Therefore, it is important that all tenders awarded by the Gauteng Provincial Government to this company be investigated to ensure that everything was done within the proper supply chain management process and that all treasury regulations were followed.

Should it be found that these allegations are true, all the officials involved must face severe consequences of their actions and Mafoko Security Patrols should be blacklisted from doing any business with government.

We will also be tabling questions to MEC Maile to ascertain what exactly transpired based on the allegations.

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DA calls for immediate suspension of Gauteng COGTA Spokesperson over murdered gay men tweet

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is calling for the immediate suspension of the Gauteng Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Spokesperson, Castro Ngobese over his inappropriate and homophobic tweet on murdered gay men.

This follows Ngobese retweeting an article titled, “Four gay men have been murdered in South Africa in less than a month” and responding with a fist emoji, followed by “Aluta Continua” meaning the struggle continues.

His tweet came as a surprise and angered many people on social media who reacted with disappointment, considering that he is a government official.

This clearly indicates that there is a great need for sensitising training of all Gauteng Provincial Government officials on LGBTQIA+ issues.

Furthermore, instead of underspending on training budgets, departments can use money more wisely by training officials about transgender issues and how to respect members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

CoGTA MEC, Lebogang Maile’s request of Ngobese to write a formal letter explaining himself, is a weak and insufficient response. Ngobese must be suspended with immediate effect pending disciplinary actions. He must also undergo anger management training.

The DA believes that government officials should lead by example in building a more inclusive South Africa for all who live in it by promoting and protecting the rights of the LGBTQIA+ community, in terms of section 9 of the Constitution.

We will continue to monitor how MEC Maile is going to deal with this issue to ensure that it does not repeat again.

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DA calls for urgent investigation into alleged awarding of bursary to daughter of senior official

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is calling on the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Lebogang Maile to urgently investigate whether Sedibeng District Municipality is awarding the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSETA) bursaries in line with the policy regulations.

The DA has been reliably informed that the daughter of Sedibeng Director for Human Resources, Mr W.M. Ramotsedisi, is allegedly among three people who have received the bursaries.

We are also in possession of a letter from the Director for Human Resources addressed to the Municipal Manager (MM), requesting the MM to approve a payment of R66 445,47 for re-imbursement of bursary holders on behalf of the LGSETA.

The letter states the names of the bursary beneficiaries which allegedly includes the daughter of the Director for Human Resources. It further states that the bursaries are for unemployed members of the community.

Such bursaries are meant to be allocated to the poor and unemployed, who come from underprivileged families and cannot afford tertiary education fees.

The Director for Human Resources earns a competitive and market related salary from the municipality and can certainly afford his daughter’s tertiary education costs.

The DA has also tabled questions to MEC Maile at the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to ascertain the policy regulations of the bursaries, whether the daughter of the Director qualifies for the bursary and to determine whether the process of awarding bursaries was transparent and fair.

Should it be found that the bursary applications were not advertised, and the process was not transparent and fair, Ramotsedisi and his daughter must pay back the bursary money.

There are too many unemployed youths in Sedibeng who are denied such opportunities to apply for bursaries because of corruption in the system. This system of patronage and nepotism must end now.

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Water crisis looms in Emfuleni

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is deeply concerned that the residents of Emfuleni Local Municipality are currently experiencing water shortages.

The Emfuleni Local Municipality has issued a public announcement stating that they are aware of the water shortages currently affecting large parts of Emfuleni due to additional water supply reductions imposed on the municipality by Rand Water as a credit control measure since 25 February 2021.

The areas most affected by the water supply reductions are Vereeniging, Evaton, Sebokeng, Vanderbijlpark, Bophelong, Roshnee and Rus-Ter-Vaal.

It is worrying that water shortages in Emfuleni have been an ongoing issue without a lasting solution between Rand Water and the municipality.

The residents are now suffering as they have to walk long distances to fetch water for household purposes and are unable to use the ablution facilities.

The country is experiencing the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and a third wave is anticipated and one of the ways in which the spread of this virus is curbed is by regularly washing of hands; how can Emfuleni residents adhere to the health protocol of regularly washing hands when they are experiencing water shortages?

Despite the fact that Emfuleni has been placed under administration, the water challenges have still not been resolved.

This clearly indicates that the administrators are failing to rescue Emfuleni from a financial crisis and to deliver services to the residents.

The DA is calling on the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Lebogang Maile to intervene and facilitate an agreement between Emfuleni administrators and Rand Water to ensure that water pressure is restored so that residents can have access to a normal flow of water as is their basic human right.

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Incompetent MEC Maile fails to implement urgent measures to rescue collapsing Gauteng municipalities

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng notes with great concern that the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Lebogang Maile has once again failed to implement the urgent measures needed to rescue the collapsing Gauteng municipalities.

This information was revealed in the Gauteng Department of COGTA’s annual report for the 2019/2020 financial year.

According to the annual report, three municipalities namely, Emfuleni Local Municipality, Merafong Local Municipality and Lesedi District Municipality were earmarked for functional statutory council committees. However, the target was not achieved because the research on the functionality of the statutory council was not finalised.

The department had a target to support Merafong Local Municipality to develop the Capital Expenditure Framework (CEF) together with the Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) levers and this target was not achieved. The department states that this target was not achieved because of the challenges to appoint the service provider.

Furthermore, the department failed to meet its target to support Emfuleni with repairs and maintenance of the sewer pump stations. This target was not achieved because the department missed the deadline to transfer funds to the implementing agent namely the Ekurhuleni Water Care Company (ERWAT).

The reasons given for the department’s failure to meet its target relates to project and financial management, in which it seems the department is incapable and inefficient.

It is high time that MEC Maile prioritises fixing the challenges facing these municipalities that were caused by his own cadres.

The residents of these municipalities continue to suffer as service delivery has collapsed and these municipalities are facing serious cash-flow problems. This department is failing to support our local and district municipalities which are plagued by enormous challenges ranging from failing to settle their water and electricity debts, and some are bankrupt and unable to pay employees’ salaries.

This department lacks a political leader to drive the core mandate of the department; MEC Maile is incompetent and must be held accountable for his department’s failures.

We will continue to put pressure on MEC Maile to ensure that those targets that were not met in the previous financial year are prioritised during this financial year. We will also continue to monitor the work done by this department to ensure that they provide much needed support to our municipalities.

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Emfuleni spends almost R1 million in four months on two administrators’ salaries

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is shocked to learn that Emfuleni has spent R893 984,000 in four months for the payment of two administrators’ salaries.

This information was revealed by the Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Lebogang Maile in an oral reply to the DA’s questions at a virtual sitting of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL).

According to MEC Maile, a team of three administrators were appointed to support the lead administrator in the Emfuleni Local Municipality.

The team started working in Emfuleni in August 2020 and they are paid an hourly rate of R2264,00 in line with the treasury regulations which constitute 52 hours per month.

The Gauteng Department of COGTA is only paying the salaries of two administrators who are part of the provincial government and the other two administrators are paid by Emfuleni. Each administrator earns about R111 748 a month which means that Emfuleni has spent R893 984,000 on the salaries of two administrators in four months.

It is unacceptable that the cash-strapped Emfuleni Municipality continues to pay ridiculous salaries to administrators while facing a serious cash flow problem.

This municipality has been battling to pay its debts owed to Rand Water and Eskom as well as to pay it service providers for the services rendered yet they continue to pay thousands of rands to administrators every month.

Service delivery has completely collapsed in Emfuleni under the watch of these administrators who are failing to rescue this municipality from its serious financial situation.

The DA calls on MEC Maile to review the work done by these administrators in Emfuleni so far so as to ascertain whether they are assisting in rescuing this municipality from its long-term financial and service delivery problems. We see no use in having a team of four administrators if this municipality continues to move from one challenge to another with no lasting solution.