Hope for a better future in City of Tshwane

Most of the township residents in the City of Tshwane are relieved by the end of an eight-year rule of the DA led multiparty coalition which appeared to many like 80 years.

Following the motion of no confidence against mayor Cilliers Brink, 120 councillors were not shy to echo the famous words “hasta la vista baby” to the outgoing mayor as they whipped his party in the numbers game.

With the ANC tabling the motion of no confidence and hope for a better future in City of Tshwane receiving the support of Action SA and the EFF, victory was unequivocally declared on behalf of the residents who have been on the receiving end of the terrible effects of DA’s pro-rich agenda.

To mention just a few, townships and informal settlements like Mamelodi, Soshanguve, and Hammanskraal have felt the brunt of this agenda as they have seen their residents get accustomed to water supply challenges, dark streets due to streetlights that are not functioning even after numerous attempts to get the municipality to intervene, rent debts skyrocketing to the ceiling to a point at which pensioners were unable to settle the tariffs because of the city’s careless meter reading system and unattended sewage that had become the playground of children.

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DA mismanagement left Tshwane in financial ruins

Instead of the DA stabilising the finances of the city, it had been tempted to see the city’s treasury purse as its cookie jar from which they could feed their appetite that resulted in R10 billion unaccounted for as the auditor-general’s report revealed. Yet the country was forced to be mum about it.

In addition, the DA has proven to be unfit to govern as mismanagement had become the order of the day and paralysed the city’s finances to a point that it rendered it difficult to service the needs of the marginalised groups that the DA didn’t care about.

This affected the effectiveness of delivering basic services to those who needed it the most. Under the DA, black communities have been subjected to an unclean environment as the city failed to consistently collect waste as required.

Storm water systems are blocked and internal road potholes have been a norm to live with as the city further deteriorated in quality.

And the CBD brings one to shame as they have to refer to Tshwane as the capital city of the country.

This on its own, as the new mayor waits to be elected in a few days, shows that the new coalition government has a lot of work to do.

It cannot afford to be idle but must hit the ground running in order to close the gap that the DA widened due to its favouritism of only servicing the affluent areas of Tshwane.

Therefore, it is surprising that the DA is talking about the fall of the DA-led multiparty as a threat to the future of Tshwane, while under its leadership there was no future at all.

Everything seemed bleak and was on the brink.

With Brink vacating the top seat, this signals a chance for a new dawn and hope for a better future for as long the next government will be obsessed with service delivery being fast-tracked.

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