Posted on

Didiza running away from public debates with the DA

With just 2 weeks to go before the August 3 elections, the DA has learned that the ANC’s imposed Mayoral Candidate for Tshwane, Thoko Didiza, has once again opted out of taking part in a televised public debate.

Instead the ANC has again despatched outgoing Mayor Ramokgopa to defend their failures, lies and broken promises on both the eNCA debate this evening, as well as in tomorrow morning’s debate hosted by kykNET.

In fact, Didiza is yet to take part in a single public debate since she was deployed to Tshwane by President Zuma. What is Didiza hiding from?

Today I would like to challenge Didiza to come out of hiding and debate the ANC’s record in the Capital and her plans for the City.

Come and debate the ANC’s unemployment record in the Capital that saw 40,000 residents of Tshwane join the ranks of the jobless in the first quarter of 2016 alone.

Come and debate the ANC’s service delivery record that has left informal settlements without access to water and sanitation, and forced them to resort to illegal electrical connections because the City has not provided an alternative.

Come and debate the corruption endemic to the ANC in Tshwane that costs the City billions and reserves EPWP jobs and housing opportunities for those connected to the ANC.

With the elections fast approaching, the people of Tshwane deserve to know who they are voting for on August 3.

Instead of hiding behind Sputla, Didiza must give the people of Tshwane the opportunity to decide who will really bring the change our City needs to move forward again.

Change is marching on the Capital as momentum grows behind the DA. On August 3 the DA can win Tshwane and bring change that will stop corruption, deliver better services and create jobs.

Solly Msimanga

DA Mayoral Candidate for Tshwane

[IMAGE SOURCE]

Posted on

ANC MUST EXPLAIN WHY ONLY 59 OUT OF 150 INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS HAVE BEEN FORMALISED

In 2013, outgoing Mayor Ramokgopa promised in his State of the City Address that “The total eradication of informal settlements remains an important goal of our work during the current term of office. Our citizens deserve places of residence that are fully serviced with title deeds.”

And just yesterday, Thoko Didiza, the ANC’s lame duck mayoral candidate, reiterated this promise saying that replacing informal settlements is a priority for the party.

But truth is that since 2013, the number of informal settlements has only grown under the ANC. The ANC must explain their broken promises to formalise informal settlements.

According to City of Tshwane’s 2014-2105 Annual Report, only 59 of the 150 informal settlements identified in 2013 by the City’s “flagship” housing programme, Re Aga Tshwane, have been formalised. This is a mere 39% of the set target.

Since 2013, the number of informal settlements in Tshwane has in fact increased to 178. Among these informal settlements is Plastic view which recently burnt, killing five people and displacing roughly 1 500 residents.

Many informal settlements in Tshwane are without access to basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation.

According to the General Household Survey, Tshwane has the lowest percentage of households with access to a basic sanitation facility at 82% in comparison to 91.4% in Cape Town.

In 2015, Sputla yet again said the City would “accelerate the formalisation process through the Re Aga Tshwane programme”. But just like the rest of his promises, this pledge too lies broken and shattered.

Sputla was correct in saying that the people of the Capital deserve houses with title deeds. But the ANC government in Tshwane has failed to deliver.

Handing over title deeds is about more than giving people ownership of their homes; it is about expanding access to opportunity.

Title deeds allow people to be owners of their property, to have access to equity, to be part of this society and to prosper. Title deeds give people access to opportunity and to ability to improve their lives and the lives of their families.

Earlier this week the DA revealed that corruption and financial mismanagement in the Capital has cost its residents the equivalent of 32,153 RDP houses, while the housing backlog in Tshwane stood at over 120,000 according to the 2014/15 Gauteng Department of Human Settlement’s Annual Performance Plan.

For too long the people of the Capital have been let down by broken ANC promises.

The DA have committed to working hard to ensure that the delivery of title deeds in municipalities we govern is sped up so that more South Africans can own the properties where they live.

Where the DA governs, we are committed to ensuring the fair allocation of housing opportunities, and vitally, coupled with the issuance of title deeds.

In the past three years, the DA-run City of Cape Town has given 15 000 title deeds to make the poor the real owners of their own homes. This is more than any other metro in the country.

This is the change that only the DA can deliver, handing over title deeds as well as greater transparency and accountability in the awarding of RDP. This has been proved in the municipalities we govern.

This is the DA difference; this is the change the DA wants to bring to Tshwane in order to see it move forward again.

Together, on 3 August, we can bring change to Tshwane.

 

Media enquiries:

Motheo Mtimkulu

Media Manager: Tshwane Mayoral Campaign

083 728 0554

Posted on

Thoko Didiza: proudly brought to you by Jacob Zuma

Note to editors: The following remarks were made outside the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria by DA Mayoral Candidate for Tshwane, Solly Msimanga. 

Fellow South Africans,

Behind the doors of the North Gauteng High Court today a battle is waging: the ANC in Tshwane is fighting to defend its corrupt smart-meter contract with PEU that has cost our City over R2 billion.

But the battle being fought is part of a larger war the ANC is waging to retain their ability to loot and plunder the City’s coffers.

The ANC in the City of Tshwane is preying on its residents, lining their pockets with money that should have gone to job creation and service delivery, and they do not want to stop.

Our City has been caught in an ANC-spun web of corruption from which it is struggling to escape. Over the past five years, we have seen the City turned into a well-oiled patronage machine that churns out jobs and tenders for those linked to the ANC.

But while the PEU contract makes headlines, to focus on it is to fail to see the forest for the trees; it is to fail to see that the ANC is a fundamentally corrupt organisation that has abandoned the service of the people in favour of the benefit of the few.

The culture of corruption within the ANC that saw the City of Tshwane enter into the PEU contract is the same culture of corruption that sees tenders awarded to ANC officials, housing and EPWP job opportunities exchanged for favours, and metro police officers solicit bribes.

It is the same culture of corruption that saw President Zuma spend R246 million of your money on his private residence at Nkandla.

And it is the same culture of corruption that saw ANC members in Parliament, including Zuma’s imposed mayoral candidate, Thoko Didiza, vote to let him off the hook and allow him to escape accountability for the theft of public funds.

It is this culture that residents of this City have to live with every day, and that prevents them from accessing the opportunities they deserve.

Replacing Mayor Ramokgopa with Thoko Didiza will not bring the change this City needs to move forward again, because they are cut from the same cloth.

As we stand here today, the corrupt President who imposed Didiza on Tshwane is in fact campaigning in the Capital on her behalf because they too are cut from the same cloth.

The people of Tshwane need change, but that change will not be found in the ANC and it will not be found in Didiza.

Didiza cannot be an agent of change because she is part of the ANC status quo.

The ANC government that Didiza will inherit in Tshwane is the same ANC government that Sputla left behind.

Thoko Didiza was proudly brought to you by Jacob Zuma, not to bring change to the Capital, but to entrench the culture of corruption that permeates every level of the ANC.

While the ANC knows this to be true, they would rather that the people of Tshwane did not.

Last week the DA erected a billboard not far from here to remind voters who sent Thoko Didiza to Tshwane – Jacob Zuma.

The ANC is so ashamed of this fact that they threatened to burn down the building if the billboard was not removed.

But we will not remove our billboard because the people of Tshwane deserve to know what they are voting for – more of the same ANC lies, corruption and broken promises.

Fellow South Africans,

The people of Tshwane will only find the change they deserve in an honest and responsive DA government that will stop corruption, deliver better services and create jobs.

While the ANC has spent the past five years presiding over the decline of the Capital, DA governments across South Africa have been making progress in improving the lives of ordinary South Africans.

The DA’s commitment to corruption-free government that delivers better services and creates jobs is why we can lay claim to governing 9 of the 10 best run municipalities in South Africa.

This is the DA difference; this is the change the DA wants to bring to Tshwane in order to see if move forward again.

On August 3 together we can bring change to Tshwane.

Media enquiries:

Motheo Mtimkulu

Media Manager: Tshwane Mayoral Campaign

083 728 0554

[IMAGE SOURCE]

Posted on

“Lame Duck” Didiza will bring more of the same

After hiding from the residents of Tshwane for the past 4 days while the city burned, it appears that Thoko Didiza has made her first appearance in Tshwane this morning, and we welcome her to the City.

Didiza was joined on the ground by outgoing Mayor Ramogkopa, who she praised yesterday for the job he had done and pledged to “build on the work of those who have come before [me].”

To the people of Tshwane this means Didiza is committing to building on a record of rising unemployment, endemic corruption, inadequate service delivery and rampant crime.

Her belief that Sputla has done a good job shows that she clearly does not understand the problems facing the people of Tshwane.

Didiza is a lame duck candidate who has been deployed to Tshwane by President Zuma to bring more of the same. She will not be able to unite the severely divided ANC local structures in the Capital and will not bring the change we need to move the City forward.

Didiza’s endorsement of Sputla is the clearest indication yet that should Didiza become mayor, she would only pick up where Sputla left off and deliver more of the same – the same broken promises and the same failures to prioritise the needs of the people of Tshwane.

Didiza’s voting record in Parliament shows that she will not challenge the status quo of patronage and corruption endemic to the ANC. She voted to let President Zuma off the hook for Nkandla, and she voted to protect Jacob Zuma from a motion of impeachment after he was found to have violated the Constitution by the Constitutional Court.

Didiza is a protector and defender of Jacob Zuma, and she would only continue to do his bidding in Tshwane.

The people of Tshwane need real change in order to move forward again. I have spent 294 days traveling around my home City hearing from the people how the ANC have failed them.

I met with people who make up the 517 000 residents of Tshwane who are unemployed or have given up hope of finding a job would not agree with her.

I have seen the effect of the R1.88 billion that was lost to unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, which could have been used to create jobs and deliver better services.

I have met with the people of Mamelodi, Hammanskraal and Pienaarspoort, who were promised houses by the ANC but today continue to live in shacks. And the people of Atteridgeville, Kungwini and Eersterust, where gangsterism and drug use fuels a vicious cycle of crime and violence.

These residents would not agree with Didiza that all is well in the Capital. These facts all point to an ANC government that has failed the people of the Capital City and under Didiza they will continue to fail them.

The latest Independent polling conducted by IPSOS shows the DA can win Tshwane as we lead the ANC by 9 points. Only the DA can bring the change that Tshwane needs to make progress.

The DA needs the support of each and every voter to make this City great. Together we can bring change to Tshwane.

 

Solly Msimanga

DA Mayoral Candidate for Tshwane

[IMAGE SOURCE]

Posted on

Tshwane Violence: Thoko Didiza And Jacob Zuma Must Come Out Of Hiding

ANC’s internal “civil war”

As Tshwane enters another day of violence and volatility fuelled by the ANC’s internal “civil war”, the big question remains: where are Thoko Didiza and Jacob Zuma while the Capital burns?

It is a sign of an imposed mayoral candidate that Thoko Didiza has been nowhere to be seen while ANC violence brings Tshwane to its knees. Didiza’s first action as mayoral candidate was to go into hiding.

The violence in Tshwane is undeniably political in nature, but the ANC refuses to accept responsibility for the actions of its members. The President, and Leader of the ANC, is yet to make a public statement condemning the violence or even to call for calm.

While the Capital burnt, Zuma instead chose to host a comfortable summit.

Restoring calm to Tshwane

Restoring calm to Tshwane requires decisive actions from the ANC leadership. I have called on Gwede Mantahse to intervene, but instead the ANC has chosen scapegoating and blame-shifting over honesty and accountability.

Yesterday the ANC went to great lengths to attempt to dismiss the severity of the violent protests and tried to paint them as opportunistic criminality and thuggery.

This shows total disregard for the clear message from ANC supporters leading the protest: the ANC in Tshwane will not accept the imposition of Thoko Didiza

The DA now understands that branches have allegedly given Luthuli House a deadline of 3 days to find a solution.

ANC Factionalism

The violence has so far caused millions in damage, including the torching of 19 busses, while countless residents of Tshwane are captives in their communities, unable to get to work and school.

If Thoko Didiza wants to retain any semblance of leadership, she must come out of hiding and address the Tshwane ANC violence immediately.

President Zuma must also step up and take responsibility for the violence he has caused.

We cannot allow the lives of the people of Tshwane to be jeopardised by factionalism within the ANC.
Media enquiries:
Motheo Mtimkulu
Media Manager: Tshwane Mayoral Campaign
083 728 0554
[Image source]

Posted on

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

Posted on

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

Posted on

Msimanga To Share His Vision For Tshwane

Tomorrow, 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

Posted on

Thoko Didiza – proudly brought to you by Jacob Zuma

President Zuma and Luthuli House made the decision today to disregard the voters of Tshwane and parachute in an outsider as its candidate to fill the corrupt shoes left by outgoing Mayor Ramokgopa.

Didiza’s deployment comes after a protracted and violent battle for the ANC’s top spot in the Capital that has left the party in a mess. With her nomination, today the ANC in Tshwane is more divided than ever.

It also raises serious questions about who Didiza will answer to, as she arrives in Tshwane on the orders of President Zuma and Luthuli House – not at the behest of voters.

With 44 days to go before the elections, the move is a desperate attempt by Luthuli House to stop the ANC from hemorrhaging any more support after the dismal showing by Sputla’s destructive government.

But the truth is that installing Didiza will not end the corruption that infected the ANC in Tshwane under Sputla’s watch.

Nor will it fix the party that has consistently failed to improve the lives of the residents of Tshwane, or create the jobs our people so desperately need.

Voters can be sure that Didiza will not bring change. She will only bring more of the same. More broken promises, more failed services, more unemployment and more corruption.

As a son of Tshwane, I have spent the past 290 days on the campaign trail engaging with voters across our metro. I understand the issues important to the people of Tshwane, and I have a plan to address them.

In contrast to this, Didiza brings with her the ANC’s playbook and no local knowledge whatsoever.

As the ANC lies in tatters in Tshwane, the City requires a competent government that can turn it around. I pledge to lead an honest and responsive DA government that will put the needs of the people of Tshwane first.

Independent polling shows that public sentiment against the ANC in Tshwane has turned negative and that the DA can win on August 3. Together with the support of all voters who want to move forward again, we can bring change to Tshwane. We can stop corruption, deliver better services and create jobs.

 

Solly Msimanga

DA Mayoral Candidate for Tshwane

[IMAGE SOURCE]