Tshwane hits back at Ramokgopa over ‘filthy city’ claims

The former mayor of Tshwane has launched an attack on the new DA-led city council, claiming it’s letting the socioeconomic programmes of the former ANC-led council collapse  – to the detriment of unemployed youth and township residents.

ANC Greater Tshwane Region chairperson and former mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa also charged on Tuesday in Pretoria that the new council has not fixed potholes or blocked sewer pipes.

“The city is filthy, traffic lights are not working, blocked sewer pipes and potholes are not being repaired.

“The state of decay and deterioration can be seen and felt everywhere around the city.”

Ramokgopa added that service delivery has been replaced “by investigations and meaningless international trips”.

“This hopeless and incompetent administration has also decided to collapse the award-winning Tshepo 10 000 programmes which were very successful and had already benefitted our young people,” he said.

He said the DA-EFF coalition administration had indefinitely suspended projects in the townships and aimed to cancel the award-winning free Tshwane Wi-Fi.

“We have empirical evidence that spending has been halted on key service delivery projects in these areas, such as roads and stormwater drains, sewer systems and provision of water.

“This selfish and narrow behaviour undermines the rights of our people and robs them of their dignity.”

However, the mayor’s office rubbished the claims. Mayoral spokesperson Samkelo Mgobozi said the city had continued certain township projects, including free Wi-Fi.

“[The city] has encouraged the private sector to come on board so we can proliferate Wi-Fi in the city for residents and businesses, but not at the expense of the city, which cannot foot the entire bill. It is just not sustainable when there are options to proliferate it in partnership with the private sector,” he said.

Mgobozi said the ANC’s claims amounted to “deliberate misinformation” as each member of the mayoral committee responded diligently to problems when they happened.

“Not all can be tended to immediately, but they are being worked on. It is quite surprising and telling that the ANC has issues with these things given they have had over 20 years to improve systems and infrastructure that we, as the new administration, are faced with.”

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