Da Gauteng Local Government Spokesman

Johannesburg may lose Roodepoort and possibly other areas on its western border to the envisaged West Rand Metro. This could be one of a number of changes to the borders of municipalities in Gauteng during the current demarcation process.

The MEC for Local Government and Housing, Humphrey Mmemezi, has indicated that Gauteng will consist of “wall to wall” metropolitan municipalities by 2025/26, with a possibility that the first new metro may be established by 2016. Gauteng would therefore have five metros by this date and no more local and district municipalities. The two new metros will be in the West Rand and the Sedibeng (excluding Lesedi) area.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) believes that converting all local and district municipalities into metro’s will be detrimental to local government in the province, as local municipalities are viable entities if they are managed correctly. Midvaal municipality in Gauteng is proof of this as was Nokeng tsa Taemane (Cullinan) when it was under DA control.

The possible future changes in Gauteng municipalities are as follows.

* Inclusion of Roodepoort and other western suburbs into the new West Rand metro. It will also include Mogale (Krugersdorp), Randfontein and Westonaria.
* Inclusion of Lesedi (Heidelberg) into Ekurhuleni.
* Establishment of a Metro in Sedibeng including Emfuleni (Vereeniging and Vanderbijl Park) and Midvaal (Meyerton).

The DA calls on all residents to ensure that they participate in the public processes for the demarcation of municipal boundaries of municipalities in Gauteng. The first opportunity to submit proposals to the Municipal Demarcation Board is by 15 December 2011.  

DA Gauteng Health Spokesman

I note with great concern the statement by the South African Medical Devices Industry Association (SAMED) that some 45 members are owed about R300 million by the Gauteng Health Department, with some debts dating back to 2005.

My advice is that they should sue Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane, and attach the furniture in her official residence if she fails to pay up. Legally she is the accountable person, and as premier she has made many empty promises about payment.

Meanwhile, hospitals suffer as suppliers withhold equipment and services.

Drastic action is required to get the provincial government to pay up soon, as I am aware of many small companies that are retrenching or not paying bonuses because they have not been paid.

DA Gauteng Safety & Security Spokesperson

An investigation by the Democratic Alliance deepens the mystery about the recent tragic accident in which Gauteng Local Government MEC Humphrey Mmemezi’s motor vehicle ploughed into matric student Thomas Ferreira on his motorbike, leaving Thomas in a coma.

Witnesses who saw the accident and who remained on the scene are absolutely adamant that MEC Humphrey Mmemezi was not in the car.  They are certain that only the driver was on the scene and he was not concerned about Thomas’ welfare at all.

This raises a number of questions:

If Mmemezi was not in the car:

•           Why was the driver breaking the speed limit and using his blue lights?  Where was he going and on whose instruction?

•           Why has he admitted to being in the car? Who is being protected?  Is it the driver and if so, why? Is the driver an SAPS member as required by law?

Conversely, if Mmemezi was in the car:

•           Why did he not get out and show concern for the boy his vehicle had hit?

•           How could numerous witnesses not be aware of him?  Was he hiding on the back seat?

•           How was he spirited away from the scene of the accident without anyone seeing him?

•           What meeting was he going to which supposedly necessitated speeding and a breach of traffic safety?

The enormously aggressive stance taken by Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane in responding to any questions on the circumstances in which blue lights may be used and the allegation that MEC Mmemezi was rushing to an ANC political party training session (quite clearly not government business and quite clearly not an emergency) is completely inappropriate.

It is the fervent wish of the Ferreira family that no-one else has to go through the pain and hurt their family has had to endure.

If the MEC and the Premier truly want to show empathy to the family and understanding of the situation, they would be far more forthcoming about what truly happened and why the car was being used in such a negligent and irresponsible manner.  They would also be sincere in their efforts to ensure that blue light convoys are banned in Gauteng.

DA Gauteng Agriculture and Rural Development Spokesman

The DA welcomes the recommendation by the Gauteng Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development that municipalities should be assessed by the Gauteng Agriculture and Rural Development Department to ensure rural agricultural areas are not neglected.

This recommendation was adopted in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature today as part of the Portfolio committees report on the 2011/2012 quarterly report.

The DA has long lobbied within the committee that the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) processes of especially metro areas neglect some of the vast rural areas within metros with urban interests dominating. The processes neglect agricultural potential at the expense of job creation and economic development.

Areas that can benefit from this recommendation include Eikenhof and Muldersdrift in Johannesburg; the former Metsweding municipality now incorporated into Tshwane; and areas like Nigel, Dunnotar and Bapsfontein in the Ekurhuleni metro.

The DA urges the Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to immediately start enacting this recommendation. 

The Gauteng province may expand through the inclusion of municipalities from adjacent provinces. This was revealed yesterday in a reply to an oral question I posed to the MEC for Local Government and Housing, Humphey Mmemezi, in the Gauteng Legislature.

Options are currently being considered to include the Dipaleseng Municipality, which includes the towns of Balfour and Greylingstad, into Gauteng. Balfour is well known for its violent service delivery protests earlier in the year. The MEC also indicated that consideration is being given to the inclusion of municipalities from the Free State into Gauteng as part of this process.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is concerned by the possible inclusion of cross border areas into the province.  The illusion exists that Gauteng is better resourced and therefore communities would benefit from being included in Gauteng rather than remain in their current provinces.

The MEC indicated that such inclusions would require a constitutional change and as such the process will have to be driven by the national government. However, he did indicate that the people of Balfour wanted to be included into Gauteng and that the ANC supports such a move. He also said that Gauteng cannot support such re-demarcation without a grant of at least R1 billion to address development backlogs. Should Dipaleseng be included in Gauteng it is likely to form part of the Ekurhuleni municipality.

Gauteng already struggles to fund its own backlogs and due to urbanisation and in-migration, the province is experiencing increased strain to deliver housing and municipal services to all its new residents. Municipalities in the province also struggle to make ends meet and the inclusion of new areas will place undue strain on these municipalities. Therefore there is no guarantee that these communities will be better off in Gauteng.

The recent merger of Kungwini (Bronkhorstpruit) and Nokeng Tsa Taemane (Cullinan) proved that residents are not better off after being included in a metro. These residents experienced property rates tax increases of hundreds of percent and are struggling to access services from the larger municipality. Such side effects could cause renewed violent protests.

Careful consideration needs to be given to the possible inclusion of cross border municipalities into Gauteng. The neighbouring provinces should rather utilise their resources more effectively to promote service delivery in these areas to mitigate such a move.

DA Gauteng Health Spokesman

Drastic measures are needed to save Bruma Lake in eastern Johannesburg after a study found that there is a severe health risk both to residents and to people living close to the Jukskei River as it flows from this highly polluted lake.

According to the study conducted in October by the animal, plant and environmental sciences department of the University of the Witwatersrand, raw sewerage, urine and other rubbish flowing from the inner city probably contains cholera, salmonella and the hepatitis virus.

The Johannesburg Council has injected “effective micro-organisms” into the lake, but the study found that this has increased rather than reduced the bacteria.

We need to get real experts in now to fix this lake once and for all.

The council has stumbled from one failed strategy to another, and even failed to spend available funds.

Speedy and effective action is needed to alleviate the dire health consequences of pollution in this lake.

All DA MPLs will wear black at tomorrow’s sitting of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature. We will also read out a statement of protest.

It is indeed a day of mourning when the hard-won right to freedom of expression is assaulted by a law that will criminalise possession of documents that could expose corruption.

Only a government that fears exposure could endorse this measure.

I fear for our democracy.

21 NOVEMBER 2011, BY DA SPOKESPERSON MR. PAUL WILLEMBURG, ON THE OVERSIGHT REPORT ON THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF INFRASTRUCTURE DEVEOPMENT FOR 2010/11 FINANCIAL YEAR

About R1.2 billion was spent of the total Annual Budget of R1.314 billion, by the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development.

This amounts to under-spending of R146 843 000, meaning that lack of funds is not a problem for the department, but rather an inability to spend them.

It is essential that maintenance be prioritised. It becomes far more expensive to rehabilitate infrastructure than if maintenance is done on a scheduled and ongoing basis. 2000 properties of the 11000 were targeted for verification but the Department only succeeded in verifying 900 of these.

The Department also had a target to evaluate 2000 properties but failed to value any of them. This means that there is no proper asset register and a poor reflection of its ability to meet its objectives.

A huge problem for this Department is its inability to deal with and get leases signed by the lessees. This is nothing new and has been ongoing for a number of years. The plan is to charge market related rentals based on the latest municipal valuations. According to the Annual Report, the Department had planned to have 180 lease agreements signed but only succeeded in getting 62 fully signed and a further 72  partially signed.

Information provided by the Department shows that many government officials reside in these residences and that the rentals being charged are not market related. We are told that occupants simply refuse to sign the leases. The question is why is this department struggling to get the leases signed? An additional R36 million could have been collected if market rates been charged.

2014 is the target for ‘squeaky clean’ departmental audits in this country. That’s not too far in the future so I suggest that the MEC Bheki Nkosi starts cracking the whip.

The Gauteng Roads and Transport Department under-spent 10%, R347 million, of its budget in the 2010/11 financial year.

This was revealed in my speech delivered in the Gauteng Legislature today on the 2010/11 Annual Report of the Gauteng Roads and Transport Department.

Irregular and fruitless wasteful expenditure totalled a further R17 million and the outstanding debts owed to G-fleet is an added concern with the total debt owed by Gauteng Departments amounting to R198 million.

In a province with crumbling roads this is inexcusable.

The share of funding provided to the Gauteng Roads and Transport Department by the National Treasury via the equitable grant is woefully inadequate and an additional R2 billion is required annually just to keep our roads in the state they are.

However, it is hard to motivate for additional funds when the Department doesn’t spend the money already allocated.

Our roads show signs of collapse, traffic lights are replaced by four-way stop signs, and provincial roads are potholed.

Better financial control is needed to ensure an already crippling roads infrastructure will not deteriorate even further.

The Democratic Alliance is very pleased that the Gauteng Provincial Legislature has accepted our motion on measures to assist the payment of child maintenance to single mothers.
The motion was debated and accepted by all political parties including the ANC on Friday 18 November 2011.

The motion resolves that the Gauteng Provincial Government works with the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development and with law enforcement agencies to ensure that child maintenance is properly enforced through various means including the use of road blocks.

Furthermore, that an awareness campaign is considered to inform parents of their rights and responsibilities with regard to maintenance payments for children.

Many women experience problems in claiming maintenance, and maintenance orders are often not enforced. Latest figures are that there are 1041 warrants of arrest for defaulters.

The DA believes that enforcing maintenance responsibility could play a role in discouraging teenage pregnancies as it highlights a financial consequence for unprotected sex.

In general, the responsibility of an absent parent needs to be encouraged with regard to the well-being of children.

We hope that Gauteng now follows the lead of the Western Cape Provincial Government in publicising the names of defaulters (“name and shame”), as well as arrests at roadblocks.

Acceptance of the DA motion is a great boost for women and children in Gauteng.