Ekurhuleni executive mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana has changed his list of priorities since being elected, replacing “pruning trees” and fixing potholes with a focus on delivering services to the metro’s 3.7-million residents.
The African Independent Congress (AIC) councillor was voted in as mayor on March 30, replacing DA councillor Tania Campbell — who was removed through a no-confidence vote — and delivered his maiden state of the city address in the council chambers in Germiston, east of Johannesburg, on Tuesday.
The city faces a range of challenges, including persistent power cuts, water shortages, waste collection issues, unemployment, violent crime, shortage of land for housing initiatives, and food insecurity.
The mayor also committed to balancing the city’s books through reducing liquidity and credit risk, cost containment measures, smart digital billing, and by embarking on an “aggressive revenue enhancement campaign”.
The city is looking at ramping up local economic development by extending aid to township entrepreneurs, reviving the city’s tourism route, and equipping young people with skills in plumbing, carpentry, landscaping, fixing of streets and traffic lighting, and sewer and stormwater maintenance.
To loud applause on Tuesday, Ngodwana said his administration would continue to support access to tertiary education through its bursary intervention mechanisms, and speed up the release of “strategic land parcels for the revitalisation of the manufacturing and retail industry”.
However, Ngodwana said that for all of those plans to be realised, there needed to be political stability in the metro to eliminate “frivolous motions of no confidence for the stabilisation of service delivery and effective provision of essential services”.
He was voted in as Ekurhuleni's first citizen with the help of the AIC’s coalition partners including the ANC, EFF, AIC, COPE, NFP, UDM, PAC, PA, IRASA, ICM and ATM. The AIC has three seats in the 224-seat council.
Campbell’s removal highlighted the instability of coalition governments, which political pundits criticise for being more about positions than the delivery of services. Gauteng metros have been rocked by political instability after local government elections in 2021 did not produce a clear winner across the province.
“Without political stability, internal squabbles take centre stage and services take a back seat while time is spent trying to resolve squabbles, resulting in delays in providing services,” Ngodwana said.
His administration had been busy in recent weeks “criss-crossing the region and consulting our people about their needs as part of the Integrated Development Plan process”.
“They want the grass to be cut; they want sustainable water supply; they want regular waste removal; they want potholes to be fixed; they want job opportunities; and they are also crying for an end to prolonged power outages that go beyond the load-shedding schedule.”
The mayor took pot shots at the previous DA-led administration, saying it failed to deliver services: “We have experienced and witnessed the collapse of service delivery of the highest order under the previous regime. This is a collective that cannot claim any victory for they never delivered anything save to almost collapse the city.”
He said on various occasions, councillors were “misled that the finances of the city had stabilised when in actual fact it was the direct opposite”.
The metro has a budget of R51.2bn for the 2022/23 financial year. Campbell, however, told Business Day in November 2022 that there is “definitely a strain” on the metro’s finances, adding that it had lost about R2bn due to load-shedding.
Ngodwana said he is looking into diversified energy sources for the metro and “adding to electricity capacity to limit and contribute to ending load-shedding through the enhancement of access to reliable, affordable and sustainable electricity”.
Ngodwana said the coalition government would bring change in the municipality with “immediate effect”.
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