People of ‘leaderless’ Tshwane paying a heavy price – ANC

ANC provincial communications head, Tasneem Motara, said the administration was treating residents with disdain and the city as a guinea pig.

View of the city of Pretoria from the Union Buildings on October 30, 2009 ahead of World Cup 2010 in South Africa. South Africa received a record 9.5 million tourists in 2008, up 5.5 percent annually, but is counting on the World Cup to reverse a slowdown felt this year. South Africa expects 450,000 people to visit the country during the competition, which runs from June 11 to July 11. AFP PHOTO STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP PHOTO / STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN

The people of “leaderless” Tshwane are paying a heavy price when it comes to poor service delivery, the ANC in Gauteng said on Thursday.

The party’s provincial communications head, Tasneem Motara, said the administration was treating residents with disdain and the city as a guinea pig.

Motara said it came as no surprise the municipality had effectively been placed under party administration, as reported by News24, as a move by the DA leadership to stabilise its fractured caucus.

“… service delivery in the municipality has long taken a backseat owing to the tenuous marriage between the DA and EFF.”

News24 spoke to at least four well-placed sources at both national and local government level in the DA, with some saying there was no other way to fix the mess that had been created in Pretoria, but for national leaders to step in.

The DA-run municipality has been plagued by its own troubles, chiefly the GladAfrica tender scandal and the handling of city manager Moeketsi Mosola’s battle with the council.

Motara said the ANC had exposed the GladAfrica saga in August 2018.

She believed former mayor Solly Msimanga had left behind an ailing institution and the incumbent, Stevens Mokgalapa, was no better.

Insiders told News24 the situation had worsened, with Mokgalapa merely rewarding those who were unhappy during Msimanga’s tenure.

“Now the Soshanguve people get to eat, they get the opportunities … that’s who Stevens cares about. We thought he was capable, but he really has been a let-down,” said one Tshwane insider.

Motara highlighted problems with electricity and waste in several areas, as well as the quality of water in Hammanskraal.

“The worrying trend in the City of Tshwane points to an institution that is leaderless, and that it has no plan to get out of the service delivery quagmire it finds itself in. At this rate, Mokgalapa’s days are numbered as Cape Town has now set its sight on the struggling municipality,” said Motara.

She called on Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile to closely monitor the situation and not hesitate in placing the municipality under administration if it was warranted.

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