Madam Speaker, Clr Patricia Kumalo;
Chief Whip of Council, Clr Jongizizwe Dlabathi
Fellow Councillors;
Leaders of Opposition Parties in Council;
The Junior Council;
Acting City Manager, Dr Imogen Mashazi;
Leaders of Organised Labour, Business and Civil Society;
Fellow Residents of Ekurhuleni;
Distinguished Guests;
Members of the Media;
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Good morning!
Congratulations are in order for the Mother of the Nation Ms Winnie Madikizela-Mandela who continues to be an inspiration to many around the world. Mama Winnie, now 80, has been a stalwart of the revolution from a very tender age and God continues to spare us her life so that we can tap from her wisdom.
To her we say: many happy returns Mama. Thank you for your endless sacrifice to the struggles of our people.
I know that I speak on behalf of many South Africans and peoples of the world when I say – remain strong Mama your country still needs you.
In the same vein, we congratulate the Speaker of Parliament Mama Baleka Mbethe, who at the weekend tied the knot with the love of her live Mr Mokgatla Khomo. We can only wish the couple a happy and blessed future together.
On a sad note though, our hearts continue to go out to the to the Tshabalala family for having lost their son, who was also the pride of the nation, Mduduzi ‘Mandoza’ Tshabalala who passed on recently. Although the Nkalakatha hit-maker has already been laid to rest, his music continues to reconcile people in every corner of society.
Condolences are also in order for the family of the late EMPD member Agie Rakgwadi who passed on in the past week. This was a dedicated member who was committed to creating a crime-free Ekurhuleni. By the same token let me also wish Lt Simon Motedi, who was recently shot by criminals in the leg, a speedy recovery.
Madam Speaker;
In the past weekend we laid to rest a veteran of our struggle for liberation and one of our own heroines Cde Barbara ‘Sister B’ Mahlaba of KwaThema in Springs. The former MKMVA member and ANC stalwart succumbed to long illness and passed on just over a week ago.
This was a humble cadre who was a true servant of the people. She never put her own ambitions ahead of the interests of our people. She will forever be remembered for, among others, turning her home into a safety net for comrades who were under siege from the apartheid security forces at the height of the struggle.
May the souls of the department rest in peace.
Fellow Councillors;
This meeting takes place less than a week after thugs allegedly raped and dumped an 18-year-old woman in a mine shaft in the Angelo area. We strongly condemn this barbaric incident and call for the justice system to deal with the thugs, who are behind bars already, decisively.
I must state emphatically that no amount of explanation can justify such an act of barbarism.
This incident also highlights the problems we continue to face as a result of illegal mining. We have noticed with concern that illegal mining has resulted in gangsterism in certain communities while also escalating the rate of crime in some.
As such I wish to make the commitment that the metro police working with the SAPS will be increasing visibility and vigilance in hot spot areas in identified hot spots. It cannot be business as usual when thugs are threatening the peace, security and stability of our communities.
For now, let us continue to pray that the rescue teams find the missing woman alive.
Madam Speaker, Fellow Councillors;
It is just over a month since we took the oath of office. While as the ANC we have our manifesto which must guide our agenda for this term of office, we have also had consultations with organised labour, business and traditional leaders and healers so as to get their expectations of this administration.
Subsequent to this, the regional executive committee of the ruling party had its lekgotla, which was followed by the ANC caucus lekgotla. Finally, the mayoral committee and senior management got together to hatch effective and implementable plans towards a livable Ekurhuleni.
I am happy to report that every stakeholder understood and bought into our Pro-Poor agenda. Indeed, as a government for all the people of Ekurhuleni regardless of colour, race or creed we have no excuse but to deliver, deliver and deliver to our people.
We have resolved that for us to live up to expectations, we must have less meetings and dedicate more time to service delivery.
I will be employing an open-door policy to allow politicians and members of this august house to share their ideas of how we can all improve the lives of our people. Allow me at this point to implore all political parties to seize the opportunity and engage with us constructively and avoid playing to the gallery for this does not benefit our people.
After all, history will judge us for what we are going to do in the next five years. Never must we forget that our course was and continues to be about uplifting the most down-trodden sections of our population and all-round transformation of society.
Fellow councillors;
You would have observed from day one that our focus is not confused. We want to accelerate service delivery in this city. We are not apologetic about improving the living conditions of our people in informal settlements, nor are we apologetic about the rollout of 100 000 housing units and 59 000 serviced stands to deal with housing backlog.
We shall not be deterred in our quest to promote local entrepreneurs through our supply chain processes, hence our resolve to move with speed to make our tender documents accessible to them for free if acquired on-line – and to ensure that our suppliers are paid within 15 days after the submission of an invoice.
We shall also be streamlining our tender processes so that a tender is finalised within four months from advertisement instead of the present status quo of six to 18 months.
No longer will Ekurhuleni be price takers and be at the mercy of bidders, henceforth we shall be conducting a value for money analysis on our procurement processes to ensure each procurement transaction is as close as possible to the market value of the product procured.
To realise our commitment to fight fraud and corruption and run a clean government, we shall soon be vetting all SCM staff, SCM committees, HOD’s and Project managers. On top of this, all staff in the city will be made to sign a declaration never to do business with the metro and/or any organ of the state – this while we continue looking at a long term strategy to deal with this cancer which is eating into our society.
Furthermore, we shall continue with our open tender processes which we introduced late last year.
We remain resolute to revive our economy hence we are introducing a 10-point plan to boost the economy and create jobs. Special attention in this regard will be paid to reviving our manufacturing sector, implementing the township economy strategy and the rollout the Aerotropolis masterplan.
Cost cutting measures are another critical area that needs our urgent intervention. In this regard we shall be conducting an analysis of our cost drivers with special emphasis on cutting costs on: overseas trips; personnel costs; catering; fleet management costs; and the telephone and electricity bills. Already plans are at afoot fit 800 municipal vehicles with electronic fuel devices to manage consumption.
We shall also be exploiting opportunities to reduce our consultancy bill. One of the major interventions in this area, will be the building of our internal capacity so that we do not over-rely on consultants.
As a City we have resolved to significantly increase our revenue collection so that we have the necessary resources to upscale service delivery.
In this regard, we will be focusing among others, in intensifying credit control measures; addressing the growing debtors book; and increasing and exploring new payment platforms and methods. While we are very happy with the impact of e-Siyakhokha over the years, we, however, believe that we can still do more with further innovation hence the decision to rollout self-service machines at busy public spaces such as shopping malls, targeting townships.
We will soon be launching the innovative e-Verification system to make the Indigent Application more efficient.
To root out fraud and corruption in the area of housing, work will start in earnest to verify the 1996 waiting list.
The reviewed list will be used as a reference guide going forward. We shall further introduce a bio-matrix system to control the management of the list so that houses are given to their rightful beneficiaries.
In appreciation of work done by NGOs and other community stakeholders in assisting us do our work in communities, we shall be increasing the Grant-in-Aid kitty to R100 million with immediate effect – to give impetus to our Pro-poor policy statement.
Members of the Media;
We are clear about the agenda to restore the dignity of our people through the rollout of better and quality services, giving them the security of tenure by handing out title deeds and improve their general living standards among others.
At this point, allow me to share some of the highlights of this administration’s 100-day programme which will take us to the end of the year and set the tone until 2021:
- The health of our people comes first. In this regard we shall be officially opening the new Khumalo, Tsietsi and Dukathole clinics, which will make health care services accessible to no less than 300 000 additional Ekurhuleni people. Furthermore, the city shall be increasing the number of 24-hour clinics by an additional three more facilities from eight to 11 by the first quarter of next year. Three more will be added in the 2017/18 financial year to take the total to 15;
- We will be cracking the whip on criminals and drug peddlers in hot spot areas like the Kempton Park, Germiston and Boksburg CBDs;
- In bringing our policing services closer to the people, we will be opening a new EMPD Precinct in the Zonkizizwe area;
- A total of 292 families will soon receive proper housing, with an additional 280 to receive title deeds as we address the issue of security of tenure. We already have 11 000 title deeds at our disposal and we shall continue distributing them when due processes including the verification of owners have been concluded;
- We have already started the process towards the establishment of the Ekurhuleni Power Station. In this regard the advertisement calling for proposals for the Ekurhuleni Power Generation Programme (EPGP) has already gone out. Once complete this programme will produce an additional 10% of energy for the citizens of the city as a means to augment the Eskom supply;
- In an attempt to restore the dignity of our people, we shall be rolling out additional toilets at the Central Hostel (30) and Langaville (22);
- As we continue the programme of re-blocking and extending quality services to people living in informal settlements, we will be switching on the power to the first 722 beneficiaries in Winnie Mandela – making light to at least 3 000 more people;
- Power will also be switched on to the first 12 Reiger Park houses which have never had electricity since they were built in the 1800s;
- The issue of the unstable electricity supply in the area of Germiston will be attended to and R150million will be used in this regard. This will bring relief to business, industry and residents in the area.
- We are aware of the water supply and sewer problems in Etwatwa and Tsakane hence the commissioning of Etwatwa, Zulu and Xhosa pump stations;
- In our continued efforts to preserve water, a total of 1 700 old and leaking water meters will be replaced;
- We continue with our efforts to restore our heritage and celebrate our heroes and heroines. In this regard, we shall be officially assuming ownership of the house of the late liberation struggle icon Cde Chris Hani – which we aim to turn into a museum to mark the beginning of turning this area into a social cohesion hive going into the future;
- Not less than 50 streets totalling 25km will be tarred and 7km of roads will be re-surfaced predominantly in the Eastern and Southern regions of our city;
- In our efforts to empower our emerging contractors, work is already underway to finalise the intake of 100 Vukuphile Contractors who will share R500 million worth of work in the city in the next three years;
- We shall be officially opening a recycling facility in Tembisa and handing over a truck to co-operatives to do work in this respective area;
- For the convenience of our commuters and motorists, we shall be opening the new Phuthaditjhaba and Bluegumview taxi ranks, and the Etwatwa Motor Vehicle Registration Authority, respectively;
- With development booming around the aerotropolis catchment area, especially along the Albertina Sisulu Corridor, we shall proactively start building a new fire station worth about R30 million to deal with any emergencies and disaster threats in the area.
- Our process to curb illegal dumping continues to gain momentum, in this regard 22 000 240l bins with a microchip to prevent theft, will be rolled out to outstanding communities;
- As we broaden access to higher education, a massive game-changer for the communities of Ekurhuleni will be unleashed now in October. This is the launch of the Library Massive Open On-line Courses (MOOCs) – a facility that is basically turning our libraries into free institutions of higher learning. This innovation presents residents with an opportunity to do courses accredited by credible institutions like Yale and Stanford universities on line;
- We are aware of the needs of our young people who yearn for education and have a quest to advance their future prospects, to this end, we will be extending our financial assistance increasing our bursary scheme 10 folds from R10 million to R100 million – giving full scholarships to our deserving children;
- Still in the area of higher education, in partnership with the private sector we shall be doing the sod turning for the new Hospitality School in Kempton Park. At the moment the school is operating from a makeshift facility in the area and now we have provided land for a proper facility;
- Our efforts to improve the turnaround time for service delivery complaints will also receive a massive boost with the introduction of the Service Delivery Mobile App with GPS co-ordinates;
- Furthermore, in the IT sector we shall increase our Wi-Fi hotspots by an additional 100 spots across 25 sites giving access to about 130 000 members of the community. Since the launch of the free Wi-Fi service, we have given back an estimated R13 million to the community, which would have probably gone to data, to use on alternative needs; and
- To accelerate service delivery, we shall be launching a revolutionary programme known as Siyaqhuba.
Siyaqhuba will focus on the accelerated rollout of basic services; water and sanitation; environmental management; transport and BRT in the Thembisa area; the rollout of 24-hour clinics and pick up points; implementation of the 10-point economic revival plan; and road construction and stormwater infrastructure. It will also deal with the prompt turnaround time to service delivery complaints.
Ladies and Gentlemen;
During our engagement with the religious sector, the one issue that came up was the lack of land for churches. We have listened to our people and therefore, 89 land parcels will be leased to churches throughout the metro in the next 100 days. We shall also be putting 16 additional church sites on the market before the end of the financial year.
We are now putting plans in place to ensure the seamless and successful implementation of this programme.
This is the least that our people expect from us. This is the only way we can win back the trust and confidence of our communities.
Madam Speaker, Fellow Councillors;
To demonstrate our commitment to service delivery, allow me at this point also announce that tomorrow we will relaunch our Service Delivery Friday campaign. This campaign, which used to take place at second Friday of the month, will now take place every Friday between 07:00 and 09:00.
Every Friday I will lead a team of all MMCs and the administration led by the Acting City Manager to visit communities with the aim of responding to their service delivery complaints on the spot. With us will be a technical team that can respond to issues as and when they are spotted. We will be extending an invitation to all critical stakeholders including ward councillors and ward committees to join us in this process.
Our first stop for this campaign will be areas such as Winnie Mandela, Duduza, Clayville, Tswelopele in Tembisa. We shall convene at the Tembisa 2 customer care centre early in the morning and start our work at 07:00. Those who wish to participate are more than welcome to join us. After all, service delivery waits for no man.
Madam Speaker, Fellow Councillors;
I want to make it clear that henceforth we will be measuring project output and service levels so that we determine tangible improvement in service delivery in the course of our term of office.
As a delivering city we seek not to equal the performance of other metros but surpass them.
In closing, Madam Speaker, allow me to remind this august house that next month marks Oliver Tambo Month. As the City of Oliver Tambo, having conferred the Freedom of the City to this stalwart of our struggle for liberation over a decade ago, the City in conjunction with the Oliver and Adelaide Tambo Foundation, will once again lead the celebrations which will run throughout the month of October.
An exciting programme which will demonstrate some innovation in the way we have been doing things in the past, will be shared with fellow councillors in the next few days.
Let me take this opportunity to appeal to members of this house to encourage communities to participate in the O.R. Programme – a programme that seeks to remind us of our rich heritage.
As I sit down, Fellow Councillors, let me leave you with this thought from O.R. himself: “The fight for freedom must go on until it is won. Until our country is free and happy and peaceful as part of a community of man, we cannot rest.”
I Thank You
