DA member of the Gauteng provincial legislature Khathutshelo Rasilingwane has vowed to crush corruption in the Ekurhuleni metro moments after she was unveiled as the party’s mayoral candidate for the city.
Ekurhuleni, SA’s manufacturing heartland, boasts a population of about 4-million.
The metro has been in the news for the wrong reasons in the past year, with its senior staff cited for numerous wrongdoings at the Madlanga commission of inquiry into the corrupt infiltration of the criminal justice system.
“What we see in Ekurhuleni today is absolutely unacceptable. We have criminals in charge of our government that have looted our public finances, broken our infrastructure and collapsed our services,” Rasilingwane said at Clayville in Olifantsfontein on Friday.
“Under a DA-led Ekurhuleni we will not tolerate the capture of the institutions meant to serve our people,” Rasiligwane said. “Our foremost priority now is to rebuild our city and get it working again.”
She said her party “will crush corruption and ensure that public money is used to deliver basic services”.
“We will build a professional, capable administration where officials are appointed based on merit, not political connections.”
The DA has already announced its mayoral candidates for other metros such as Joburg (Helen Zille) and Tshwane (Cilliers Brink). The three Gauteng metros were once run by the DA, through multiparty coalitions, after the 2016 local government elections. However, the revolving door of political instability in the metros saw a succession of mayors come and go, including from the DA, Al Jama-ah, AIC and ANC.
Rasilingwane said the DA would fix the basics of local government by ensuring a reliable water supply, stabilising electricity infrastructure, providing refuse collection and filling pot-holed roads.
The National Treasury launched the metro trading services reforms in Pretoria on Wednesday, aimed at addressing the deteriorating quality of services in most metros, saying it would help improve the local authorities’ financial positions and stop their dependence on grants.
Business Day reported previously that the Treasury was working with the metros on a R54bn performance-based incentive that would provide cash to fix water, electricity and waste management services on condition they ring-fence revenue from those services in professionally run utilities that can ensure service delivery.
The local government sector continues to be dogged by fruitless, wasteful and unauthorised expenditure amounting to billions of rand, fraud and corruption, poor service delivery and a dearth of competent, skilled personnel at decision-making and management levels.
Over the medium term, R19.2bn will be reallocated to the reform of electricity, water, sanitation and solid waste trading services in metros.
Rasilingwane said: “We can grow our city’s economy by cutting red tape, restoring basic services and attracting investment, which will create new opportunities for all residents.”
“The people of this city deserve more than a doomsday coalition that steals their money, breaks their city and puts lives and livelihoods at risk. They deserve a government that works.”
DA Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga said Rasilingwane brings with her “an unwavering commitment to the betterment of society, a keen focus on service delivery improvement and, above all, a heart that truly cares”.
