The possible declaration of Polokwane as a Metropolitan Council will bring the city into the ranks of the eight biggest cities in the country.
Buffalo City in East London, City of Cape Town, Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality on the East Rand, City of eThekwini in Durban, City of Johannesburg, Mangaung Municipality in Bloemfontein, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality in Port Elizabeth and City of Tshwane in Pretoria are already metropolitan councils.
The upgrading of Polokwane’s status to a metro will result in a re-demarcation of the area of jurisdiction of Capricorn District Municipality (CDM) to exclude Polokwane and may even affect the boundaries of other existing district municipalities.
Thembi Nkadimeng, Polokwane Executive Mayor said to Polokwa-ne Observer that she is very excited about the prospects of the city to be declared a metropolitan council. “We are en route to that milestone for quite a while now. The municipality has recently applied for housing accreditation and we are working towards the upgrading of the city’s traffic management services. Our Integrated Rapid Passenger Transport System (IRPTS) is on track and we are looking forward to the implementation thereof within the next two years. Polokwane Municipality is already a water services authority and has all the public amenities that can be expected from a metro,” Nkadimeng said.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is however not so optimistic about the city’s aspirations. Jacques Smalle, Provincial Leader told Polokwane Observer that the idea is not sustainable and that it has probably not been thoroughly researched.
“No proper financial viability study has been done and the upgrading of the municipality’s status will result in an increase of at least 20% in the salaries and packages of politicians and officials.
“This move will not enhance service delivery and is a selfish deed fuelled by the financial aspirations of politicians and probably some officials. The DA does not support this,” Smalle concluded.
Attempts to source comment from the Vryheidsfront Plus (VF+), Congress of the People (Cope) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at time of going to print were fruitless.
Story: BARRY VILJOEN
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Featured photo: Thembi Nkadimeng, Polokwane Executive Mayor.
