Makhura attempts to defend the indefensible

by Solly Msimanga – DA Gauteng Premier Candidate

The Democratic Alliance (DA) notes the remarks made by Gauteng Premier, David Makhura outside the Germiston Council Chambers today, after the Motion of No Confidence against Ekurhuleni Mayor, Mzwandile Masina.

It is ironic that the Premier is lashing out at the DA-led administration while the failing ANC–led municipalities are struggling to deliver services to our people.

These statements were a desperate attempt by the Premier to distract the people of Gauteng from the implosion of the Merafong, Emfuleni and Rand West municipalities.

The Emfuleni Local Municipality which is now under administration due to corruption and maladministration is failing to deliver service to its residents.

Merafong Local Municipality and West District municipalities are unable to provide basic services as they have invested public funds illegally with VBS Mutual Bank, which was put under curatorship earlier this year. These ANC- led municipalities owe millions of rands to Eskom and Rand Water.

Premier Makhura lambasted the DA-led Metro in Gauteng saying that there is backward service delivery in the City of Tshwane which is incorrect.

The Premier conveniently forgets that he oversaw a corrupt ANC administration looting the city’s resources.

The City has made an operating surplus of R704 million, compared to the R2 billion deficit inherited from the failing ANC.

Tshwane is making progressive in terms of delivering services to its own people despite challenges we face in Tshwane it’s still a better city than it was under the failing ANC.

The DA-led administration inherited crippled and bankrupt metros from the failing ANC and transformed them into world class cities.

Tshwane residents are experiencing real service delivery and good governance.

In Tshwane we sold the mayoral mansion and used the money to build 40 RDP houses for our people who are in desperate need for housing.

We are giving our people the dignity they deserve and the security of tenure by handing over 4417 title deeds to our residents in Tshwane. While we have also connected water and electricity to those who have previously had no access to these basic services under the  failing ANC.

In Ekurhuleni, the  failing ANC-led administration has a habit of starting housing projects and leaving them incomplete indicating that they care little about the people that they are meant to serve.

R34 million was wasted on the Germiston Extension 46 housing project which was meant to provide emergency housing for the residents of Angelo informal settlement. However, the houses were built on unsafe mining land and against the reasonable and clearly expressed objections of the intended beneficiaries.

KwaMazibuko Hostel in Katlehong shows very little evidence of general maintenance, despite R 750 000 budgeted for 2016/2017 and 2017/2018

According to the Auditor-General’s report for the 2016-17 financial year, the vulnerable municipalities mentioned include Emfuleni, Mogale City, Merafong, Sedibeng and the West Rand District Municipality.

These failing ANC-led municipalities all recorded deficits for the financial year under review.

The DA-governed Midvaal municipality was the only one to obtain a clean audit. Midvaal has the lowest unemployment rate in the province

This clearly indicates that where the DA governs, we are accountable to all our citizens. Through our commitment to foster a people-centred government, the DA will bring this change to all residents of Gauteng.

Mr President, end failing e-tolls, Premier Makhura keep your SOPA promise

by Solly Msimanga – DA Gauteng Premier Candidate

Note to Editors: Find attached soundbites in Setswana and English from DA Gauteng Premier Candidate, Solly Msimanga

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is calling on the President, Cyril Ramaphosa to cancel the contract of the Electronic Toll Collections Joint Venture Consortium with Kapsch TrafficCom, which is due to expire in 2019, since it is projected that 93% of the money raised through e-tolls goes straight into the hands of the Austrian company which is the collection agency while only 7% is used for maintaining Gauteng roads. Clearly, e-tolls does not benefit the residents of Gauteng.

 

 

We have learnt that the President will soon be announcing more stringent measures to deal with the non-payment of e-tolls, but we are not hopeful that this announcement will ease the excessive burden imposed on commuters by the failing ANC.

The President should rather be announcing the scrapping of e-tolls and alternative plans of funding Gauteng roads.

E-tolls are an excessive and unnecessary burden on Gauteng residents who are struggling to survive due to inflation and the rise in petrol prices. The E-tolls also have cost implications on goods such as groceries which pass through Gauteng, meaning that it affects all South Africans.

Sanral is now issuing summonses for non-payment of e-tolls to overburdened companies and motorists.

This has a major negative impact on these businesses that are trying to survive during this recession period.

Gauteng Premier, David Makhura has on numerous occasions indicated that e-tolls are not working yet nothing has happened. Another broken promise y the failing ANC.

During his State of the Province Address, this year, Premier Makhura declared that e-tolls are not working and he promised Gauteng residents that he will be engaging with the President to discuss a solution to e-tolls.

However, to date the Premier has not given us any feedback and this e-toll saga remains unresolved.

The failing ANC has been using this controversial tolling system as a means of swaying sentiment in their favour ahead of the 2019 national elections.

Minister of Transport, Blade Nzimande indicated 2 months ago that we owe SANRAL R67 billion for the building of the freeways.

The DA calls on the national government to find an alternative way of funding and maintaining Gauteng roads.

Here are the facts about e-tolls:

  • Government claims that it owes R67 billion for the building of the province’s freeways. The Gauteng freeway upgrades cost just under R22-billion, including VAT. What does the rest of SANRAL’s R67-billion debt have to do with e-tolls? This means that Sanral has grossly overpaid for the Gauteng freeway upgrade, by as much as 67%;
  • The Gauteng Freeway Improvement Project was originally budgeted to cost R12 billion, although it eventually went up to about R20 billion, thanks to one of the most expensive roads (cost per kilometre) constructions in the world;
  • Only 30% of road users in Gauteng pay their e-tolls. Motorists reportedly owe Sanral R11 billion in this regard;
  • Gauteng’s e-tolls will struggle to fetch R900m this year, which is substantively lower than the R3-billion required per annum, to achieve their intended targets;
  • During the past two years, only R10.231 million was collected through legal processes, costing more than R4 million in legal fees in the process;
  • Sanral reported an annual loss of R260m from R4.96bn the previous year; it said it would approach the capital markets in the first quarter of 2019 to raise about R600m;
  • Sanral has very high irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure as a result of not following supply chain management processes. For the financial year 2016/2017 Sanral’s irregular expenditure rose to R10 billion, and fruitless expenditure is R15 million. These are huge amounts – taxpayers’ money should not be wasted in such a manner.
  • According to Sanral’s annual report in Parliament, from 2016 until August this year, 15505 summonses were issued. Of these, only 3724 were served on defaulters meaning that only 24% of summonses issued reached the defaulters. There are still about 2.2million summonses to be issued and served;
  • Due to the cost of e-tolls,143 of Sanral’s 339 road design and construction projects have now been reduced to perform the most critical maintenance. That means that many new roads will not be built, which will in turn lead to growing traffic and more problems on existing roads. Sanral is already two years behind with its road build programme;

On behalf of the people of Gautng and South Africa, the DA calls on the President to provide the details of the contract of the Electronic Toll Collections Joint Venture Consortium with Kapsch TrafficCom.

We are requesting the President to provide clarity as to whether they will be renewing the contract and if so, to provide the reasons why it will be renewed.

I have requested my colleagues in the Provincial Legislature and National Assembly to submit questions with regards to the amount of money raised through e-tolls in Gauteng in order to determine whether this money is sufficient to maintain our roads.

We call on the failing ANC government responsible for erecting these e-tolls to bring them down now!

Gauteng is in need of change that builds One South Africa for All, where transport across the province is affordable and government is responsive and caring.

You can download the pictures here, here, here, here and here.

Msimanga To Share His Vision For Tshwane

Today, Tuesday 21 June, DA Mayoral Candidate for Tshwane, Solly Msimanga, will return to his childhood home in Atteridgeville to share his personal vision for a renewed City of Tshwane.

President Zuma and Luthuli House have deployed an outsider, Thoko Didiza, to run for Mayor in an attempt to restore some credibility in the Tshwane ANC.

In contrast to Didiza, Msimanga is a son of Tshwane with a passion to serve its residents and make it great again.

As Msimanga embarks on the last leg of his journey to bring change to the Capital, he will set out his plans as the Mayor of Tshwane and what he would like to accomplish during his first term in office.

 

The event will take place as follows:

Date: Tuesday, 21 June 2016

Time: 11:00

Venue: Taxi Rank TR173, Maunde Street, Pretoria

GPS Coordinates: 25°47’07.6″S 28°02’37.9″E

 

Media enquiries:

Motheo Mtimkulu

Media Manager: Tshwane Mayoral Campaign

083 728 0554

Tshwane ANC Violence: DA Calls For Calm

Violence in City of Tshwane

Tonight I call for calm in the City of Tshwane after the violence that erupted in Atteridgeville, Mamelodi, Soshanguve and Hammanskraal today – over the ANC’s imposed Mayoral Candidate, Thoko Didiza – escalated this evening.

The DA condemns the factions within the ANC that are fanning the flames of violence.

Tshwane burns this evening as a result of a party at war with itself. That war has now spilled onto our streets, placing the people of Tshwane at risk.

This violence is a symptom of ANC factionalism and in-fighting after President Zuma and Luthuli House defied the local ANC by imposing an outsider to run for the Mayor of the Capital. The collateral damage in this battle for power are the people of Tshwane.

Inherent Factionalism

These are not the actions of a party that can move this City forward. This ANC infighting and obscene violence shows why we need change in Tshwane.

This mess is of Luthuli House’s making; the national leadership of the ANC must now step in and step up to prevent any loss of life and further damage to property.

I challenge ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe to intervene and stop the ANC infighting spilling further onto the streets of our City.

Let us put the future of Tshwane first and put the factionalism inherent to the ANC behind us.

On 3 August 2016 let us vote for change that will move this City forward again.
Media enquiries:
Motheo Mtimkulu
Media Manager: Tshwane Mayoral Campaign
083 728 0554

West Rand Metro: DA urges residents to participate in MDB consultations

 

Public Participation

The DA urges all residents of the West Rand to actively participate in public consultation processes with the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) in meetings scheduled for this week.

The meetings form part of the process the MDB uses to consider cooperative governance minister Pravin Gordhan’s request to merge the Merafong, Westonaria, Randfontein and Mogale City municipalities into a single metropolitan area.

The meetings are scheduled as follows:
• 21 July: Randfontein IEC hall at 10h00
• 22 July: Westonaria Banquet Hall at 10h00
• 23 July: Mogale City Krugersdorp Centenary Hall at 10h00
• 24 July: Merafong Civic Centre Carletonville at 10h00

The DA will attend these meeting in our numbers to voice our objections to the proposed metro, as we firmly believe that residents’ interests will not be served if local municipalities are dissolved.

Quality of Service to Decline

We have on a number of instances placed on record that merging dysfunctional municipalities with functional ones will not improve service delivery, nor will it improve people’s quality of life.

It is our contention that provincial and national government have a host of existing legislation at their disposal providing the means to intervene and build capacity in municipalities, but have not done so to date.

Given the poor financial and administrative capacity in the four local municipalities, that the proposed metro would inherit a combined debt in excess of R1,5 billion, and the combined costs of streamlining service delivery systems across the board, it is certain that the quality of life of almost a million people will steadily decline.

The DA calls on the public to join us at these meetings and on social media as we say no to a West Rand Metro and lodge our objections to a proposal that will deny people the freedom and opportunity to transparent governance and quality service delivery.

Media enquiries:
Solly Msimanga MPL
DA Gauteng Provincial Chairperson
060 558 8308

[Image source]

DA Calls for Urgent Intervention at Lyttelton Police Station

This morning Councillor Clive Napier of Ward 57 (Lyttelton-Centurion) and I visited the Lyttelton Police Station which remains under-resourced almost a year after the Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malubane was made aware of the problem.

Residents of the greater Centurion area have for months been victim of sustained criminal activities, ranging from hijackings, to armed robberies and burglaries, while the Lyttelton Police Station has simply not had the necessary manpower and resources to protect the community.

Despite a number of dedicated police officers at the station, they are hampered in their work through understaffing, a shortage of vehicles and the lack of safe holding cells.

The reconstruction of the gate house and charge office has been on hold for years, further hampering the effective operation of the police station.

The DA has received a petition with hundreds of signatures from Centurion residents requesting a thorough and urgent investigation into the staffing and equipment shortages of the police station as well as the condition of its infrastructure.

The DA will hand over the petition to MEC Nkosi-Malobane and Provincial Police Commissioner Lesiba Mothiba, and demand that the shortfalls are addressed with utmost urgency, and for the police station to be upgraded

Centurion’s residents need an effective and well-resourced police station to combat rapidly spiralling crime levels in the area

Media enquiries:

Solly Msimanga MPL

DA Gauteng Constituency Head – Centurion

060 558 8308

[Image source]

John Moodey to Stage Picket Calling for Provincial Referendum on e-tolls

Tomorrow, Wednesday, 4 March, DA Gauteng Provincial Leader John Moodey MPL, accompanied by Neil Campbell MPL, Solly Msimanga MPL and Khume Ramulifho MPL will stage a picket outside the Office of Gauteng Premier David Makhura in response to the premier’s failure to call for a provincial referendum on e-tolls during his State of the Province Address.

Moodey-John 200

Date: 04 March 2015

Time: 10:00

Address: Office of the Premier, 30 Simmonds Street, Johannesburg.

 

There will be ample opportunities for interviews and photographs. Members of the media are welcome to attend.

 

Media enquiries:

Tanya Heydenrych

Provincial Media Officer

0737016729

 

SPEECH ON THE DEBATE ON PREMIER’S STATE OF THE PROVINCE ADDRESS BY MR. SOLLY MSIMANGA DELIVERED IN THE GAUTENG PROVINCIAL LEGISLATURE ON 26 FEBRUARY 2015

Madam Speaker,

 

Please allow me to congratulate the Premier on his second State of the Province Address delivered on Monday. Hon Premier, I remember the day you delivered your inaugural address. You were hailed as David, the great giant slayer. You were praised as the one who’d kill goliath.

 

So sir, I will not call you a broken man, because I don’t believe that YOU are at that stage yet. But, I feel that I should also tell you that goliath is still alive and you need to step up to the challenge. The goliath that is standing in our pathway isn’t the unwillingness of our People in Gauteng, but the unwillingness of those in power to rid government of corruption. It isn’t because of people are lazy, but it is because opportunity remains a resource given to only the connected few.

 

I listened to the Premier’s speech in anticipation that I would hear how we will address the failing service delivery in our Municipalities. I was hoping there will be plan to address how we will help those municipalities in Gauteng, which are either bankrupt or on the brink of bankruptcy, turn around to being investor friendly, service delivery orientated, financially healthy running municipalities. But I got none of the above.

 

Instead what I got is more unrealistic promises and plans that lacked in detail. Honourable Premier, while you were making your speech on Monday, another piece of land belonging to the Tshwane Municipality was being sold. This is flowing against your plan to “strategically use land owned by government and the development approvals to prioritise and earmark the location of specific sectors and industries in the five development corridors of our province”. Could this be the case of the left hand not knowing what the right is doing?

 

The Premier spoke of partnership with the private sector. What commitment have you received from the private sector Hon Premier? How exactly are you going to improve the CBDs and parts of inner cities? What plan has been put in place to ensure that we don’t continue to put money into a never filling pit? How will you “Mobilise” the billions that would be put by private investors into these Cities?

Premier, in your speech, you said “there is appetite and passion to invest”. I am therefore asking these questions to satisfy myself and the residents of Gauteng that this appetite can actually be meet with a meal.

 

In light of the fact that the Alexandra renewal project has been brought to a standstill by a court order since 2008, how exactly then, are you going to “Revitalise Alexandra”? This applies also Kliptown, to which you have admitted “is in a terrible and sorry state of disrepair”. Tell us how sir.

In Everton, there was a project called the Everton Renewal Project to which almost half a billion Rands has been allocated and used, yet residents in Everton still finds themselves using pit toilets. It gets worse. The area is rotting with half build roads and infrastructure.

 

140 000 in Diepsloot and surroundings

160 000 in Mogale and surroundings

120 000 in Sedibeng

 

These are the amount of housing units in the next 5 years as promised by the Premier. 580 000 new units promised. Broken down, 116 000 units per year. Premier, this goes against what the housing departments in the province and cities had to say in a meeting held just last week. They confirm that there’s a backlog in housing demand of over 700 000 units which demand could be currently satisfied at 30 000 units per year. This is by the way province wide.

 

580 000 units in 5 years across 5 years. This is stuff dreams are made of and would be great if we can achieve. I humbly request that we be provided with details of how this rollout will transpire, so that we can be sure that this sweet and beautiful dream doesn’t turn into a nightmare.

We once again hear of the building of the Tshwane Convention Centre. This is really déjà vu, as I have heard of this Convention Centre for the past 10 years, attending 2 of the 4 sought turning ceremonies, yet no Convention Centre to date.

 

It is time that we really stop politicking, and start delivering to our people, because they really deserve better!

 

 

I thank you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact: Cell 060 558 8308