ANC works to retain public trust beyond 2021 – Mgaga
ALEXANDRA – Boom gates mooted to curb illegal dumping, crime in Alex.
The ANC’s return to power in the City of Joburg was no fluke but will be a deserved re-assumption of trust in the party by the city’s residents.
This according to the party’s proportional representative councillor for Alexandra, Sandile Kenneth Mgaga who assured that his political home would consolidate its hold on power in the build-up to the next provincial and local government elections in Feb 2021 and beyond.
Mgaga was talking to Alex News in a wide-ranging interview on the party’s renewed fortunes and challenges. “It was a temporary setback when the party was in opposition to a DA administration,” he said.
“After all, we were still a majority to a loose coalition rule that unravelled and handed back the power to the rightful owners,” Mgaga quipped as he justified his party’s right to the throne. “We are a service-driven party, working in the interest of the community and not for political grandstanding. The public’s trust in us is deserved and in return, we got our hands dirty from the very first week of Mayor Geoff Makhubo’s reign.”
Mgaga added that they were cleaning up the city without brandishing party regalia and were in cahoots with residents whose interest was to see full and quality service delivery. He said Alex residents also wanted to see the township clean again, as during the rule of Mayor Parks Tau who was succeeded by DA mayor Herman Mashaba.
“The township’s streets then were not as dirty and piled up with rubbish as Makhubo found them, with every corner a dumpsite,” he claimed of the period under Mashaba. “They used their party machinery for the clean-ups solely for political gain.”
He said Makhubo would run a depoliticised weekly cleaning up exercise and would work alongside communities in areas they identified with the city council providing them support. “It is a protracted exercise and includes residents also cleaning within their yards to inculcate a culture of daily environmental health.”
According to Mgaga, who was seen with residents unblocking a drain in Ext 9, the residents are also considering erecting boom gates to stop illegal dumping. “It will control indiscriminate trashing of the township including the dumping of building rubble along river banks by outsiders.”
He urged residents to trust in his party saying it would help the administration to enforce bylaws. “This [enforcement of bylaws] hasn’t been done for years and has caused illegal structures mushrooming everywhere including on pavements. Some of these structures are crime dens, they also block stormwater drains and sewer mains, causing flooding, burst pipes, incessant stench and should be eradicated.”
He anticipated that several motions would be passed by the city council to ensure bylaws were applied.
Meanwhile, Mgaga’s DA counterpart councillor Shadrack Mkhonto dismissed the allegation that his party’s clean-up campaign, A re Sebetseng was politically driven. “We couldn’t stop people coming voluntarily for a public exercise from wearing the clothes of their choice,” he said.
“Some ANC members in their party regalia also participate in this noble initiative. It takes only noble and wise leaders in the ANC to admit that they adopted a good practice from the DA.”
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