DA slams new plan to oust Ekurhuleni mayor

The DA is not happy about the planned motion of no confidence against its Ekurhuleni coalition mayor Tania Campbell. The opposition party condemned the move in a strongly worded statement issued on the eve of the motion.

Mayor Tania Campbell was ousted late last year and then reelected.

The statement by former Ekurhuleni speaker and DA Ekurhuleni caucus chair Raymond Dhlamini said: “The motion itself is frivolous and does not hold water.”

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Same modus operandi used to destabilise all coalitions

He said the reasons for the vote as were similar to the list of gripes that resulted in Johannesburg DA-led coalition mayor Mpho Phalatse being booted out earlier this year. Dhlamini also noted similarities of accusations mooted against former Tshwane mayor Randall Williams.

Dhlamini himself was ousted as speaker by a motion of no confidence some weeks ago.

But he didn’t hold back and called the motion an inevitable result of a nationwide hostile takeover from the EFF-ANC alliance that used minority parties as proxies to perform their dirty political dealings.

Listing the points of contention in the motion, Dhlamini said: “The motion cites resignations, administrative and financial commitments of the City, committee attendance, and unavoidable tariff increases as reasons to consider the fitness of the Executive Mayor.”

At the end of January two DA councillors quit. Pieter Henning, one of them, was damning in his letter of resignation. It read: “My health (stressed out) and family life has suffered tremendously over the last 12 months and with the total lack of service delivery and no support from all departments in Ekurhuleni I cannot fulfil my mandate as ward counsellor to the residents.”

ALSO READ: Brink leaving already? Motion for Tshwane mayor’s removal brewing

ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance both left the multi-party coalition last year. Previously, The Citizen also reported on dissent within the DA caucus, but Campbell denied it.

Service delivery in Ekurhuleni collapsed

Service delivery in Ekurhuleni has near collapsed with angry residents turning to social media to vent, come together, and protest. “Kempton Park Dark” is one of several WhatsApp Groups that rally residents to stand up for their rights as ratepayers.

The metro has been plagued by a refuge removal crisis, dumps spilling onto the pavement, spates of illegal dumping, cable theft and unscheduled electricity outages and in some cases watershedding.

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Ekurhuleni’s poor finances may be the reason for the significant lapse in service delivery.

Dire finances

Dhlamini shared the city’s dire financial status, saying: “Cash on hand deteriorated to a 14-days reserve, which is way below the National Treasury’s 30-day minimum requirement. Let alone, the global integrated risk assessment firm, Moody’s, made the decision in 2021, to downgrade the City of Ekurhuleni’s rating from B3 to Caa1 which reflected the City’s fragile liquidity position in the context of weaker operating performance, its weak budget and management practices, and its relatively complex debt structure, which raised credit risks.”

ALSO READ: Ekurhuleni Mayor Tania Campbell faces another no-confidence motion

Furthermore he said: “Equally so, it cites the City’s 13-day R372.4 million bank balance (cash on hand) and R1.29 billion debt to Eskom, which cannot be changed or improved in less than a year of stable governance. It was in fact the ANC-led Coalition that burnt through R8-billion in cash reserves between 2016 and 2021 for its weak financial performance leaving the City on the brink of financial collapse.”

According to Dhlamini the City’s short-term liquidity declined by 51% to R1.7bn in the 2021 fiscal year, from R3.5bn in the 2020 fiscal year. He admitted: “This has affected service delivery the fixing of roads, stormwater, traffic lights and potholes as cited in the motion.

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Dhlamini then proceeded to serve up some alleged dirty laundry from the past. Tender fraud under the infamous “Cargate” scandal which he said is currently under investigation by the (SIU) Special Investigative Unit, saw the City’s in-house fleet deteriorate by more than 10 years through manipulation of a R320 million vehicle maintenance tender.

He pointed out: “It is for this very reason that the City suffered a waste collection crisis due to constant vehicle breakdowns. It is only now under the DA-led Multi-Party Coalition that waste trucks are being purchased outright to replace the City’s ageing in-house fleet.”

Dhlamini praised Campbell’s leadership during her fourteen months as mayor. He said: “Under the leadership of Executive Mayor Campbell, drastic measures have been put in place to save money and curb corruption, from placing a moratorium on overseas travel for officials and political office bearers to centralising the procurement of office furniture, information communication technology, and vehicle licensing, launching investigations into fleet management options to reduce costs, and enacting stricter control measures to improve revenue and clamp down on meter tampering.”