Praise and the “real state of the city – through the eye of the opposition” were some of the reactions on the State of the City address.
Last Wednesday, mayor Mondli Gungubele presented his 55-page State of the City address on how the metro became a better place than it was in 1994.
This was during a special council meeting held in Germiston.
The members of the ANC, who had given input, praised the work the ANC did during the past 20 years, saying that the people of Ekurhuleni were excited to have opportunities and that the metro’s people had a better life.
“This was indeed a good story to tell,” many of these speakers echoed Gungubele’s speech.
Pinky Makhonza of the ANC criticised Fortune Mahano, the DA’s caucus leader, on his reply on Gungubele’s speech.
She said Gungubele was the mayor who may give the State of the City speech and not Mahano who tried to reflect the “real” state of Ekurhuleni.
She admitted there were challenges in our current government, but there were also achievements over the past 20 that made it a good story to tell.
While Mahano presented what he called the true state of Ekurhuleni, Angela Barnes, the DA’s media officer, handed out CDs and a photo book to the media in the press gallery.
This document, according to the DA, represents the real state of the city.
In the photographs were several dilapidated council properties, overgrown pavements, flooded neighbourhoods and lots of illegal dumping.
Mahano called the metro “a mess”.
He said the ANC-led metro had made a lot of broken promises to its people and quoted several of these promises
Gungubele made to the residents of Ekurhuleni, as well as not addressing the challenges of the poor.
These included the creation of job opportunities, improving education standards, reducing poverty and employment for the youth.
He said the informal settlements in Ekurhuleni and job creation were some of the metro’s biggest challenges that had to be urgently addressed.
He revealed that BMW left Germiston and Ekurhuleni because of a growing informal settlement close-by.
Izak Berg of the Independent Ratepayers’ Association said compared to 20 years ago the metro’s cash flow was healthy, but the inflation was low then.
He reminded the mayor that the metro nowadays had to borrow money to fund capital items.
The rand/dollar exchange rate is twice as much as it was 20 years ago and currently the metro also contributes less to bringing business to Ekurhuleni.
Unemployment dropped, but people nowadays are losing their jobs faster than the creation of employment opportunities.
The other parties in Ekurhuleni also had opportunities to raise several issues that affected the communities of the metro, like a school that never has electricity.
In his reply on the raised issues, Gungubele said Mahano’s speeches were reflecting confusion.
“He gives concocted information and speaks as senselessly as possible.”
He said he hoped the DA was not setting Mahano up by feeding him wrong information.
The mayor also referred to Mahano’s statement about BMW leaving Germiston, saying that it was a “coincidence” that it was Black people living in these informal settlements.
“You never get xenophobia against white people,” he said.
After the meeting Neil Diamond of the ANC suburbs task team commented on the mayor’s speech via a press release, saying the citizens of Ekurhuleni had to take time to be proud of the metro’s achievements.
He said the mayor in his opening dedicated the address to the heroes and heroines of the struggle that gave birth to what we now share – the united, democratic, non-racial and non-sexist South Africa.
“The mayor presented a collection of reasons why we should be proud residents of our city, all three million that call Ekurhuleni home.”
Diamond reminded that the theme of the address was “Strengthening Social Maturity by Advancing Social Cohesion in Pursuit of a Prosperous and therefore, a livable city”.
He said this was the same theme as last year, because as a local government the ANC remained convinced of the continued relevance of this theme.
The speech Diamond described the issues Gungubele addressed as “a sign of political maturity in our democracy.
“The mayor showcased improved services of health and emergency services as well as Ekurhuleni’s achievements since the 2013 State of the City Address.
Ekurhuleni has spent in excess of R1.1 billion in the renewal of electricity infrastructure and the mayor committed to continue efforts to become a reliable, dependable livable municipality.”
Other achievements, according to Diamond were the EMPD that services nearly 2000 square kilometres with its 2121 members and the fact that 89 864 houses were built since 1994 in Ekurhuleni, about 75 000 of these since the formation of the metro in 2001.
“Today 57% of Ekurhuleni’s households have access to piped water inside their homes.
The mayor aimed to bridge the gap on access by all communities to the local public service and improved service delivery.
“Ekurhuleni is truly a better place to live in today than what it was in 1994.
“The mayor was very critical on areas of improvement and committed that councilors and officials will work tirelessly in 2014 to make Ekurhuleni an even better place by realizing the mandate to create a better life for all,” Diamond concluded.
