Mayor gets flak over ‘empty promises’ in state of City address

Mayor gets flak over ‘empty promises’ in state of City address

TSHWANE Mayor Cilliers Brink has drawn flak from both the EFF and the ANC, accusing him of making “empty promises”, after the delivery of the State of the Capital Address at Tshwane House yesterday.

The opposition parties’ criticisms were borne out of Brink’s utterances with regard to efforts by his administration to improve the state of service delivery such as water provision, cutting grass and fixing potholes.

Regional ANC chairperson Eugene “Bonzo” Modise described Brink’s speech as “dull” and a repeat of last year’s address.

“This is just lip service to our community. There is no improvement and there is nothing we can expect from this mayor,” he said.

He cited that residents in Bronkhorstspruit and Ikageng in Mamelodi were still struggling with having access to water.

“The Hammanskraal people will be getting water not because of the City of Tshwane but because of the national government,” he said.

Opposition parties in the Tshwane council say the Mayor Cilliers Brink’s address was full of empty promises. Picture: Oupa Mokoena / Independent Newspapers

This was in reference to the point by Brink that a package plant was being built on the Magalies water line to allow people to have clean water flow to their taps in September.

On April 10, Brink and Water and Sanitation Minister Senzo Mchunu promised residents that they would be able access potable water this year through the Klipdrift package plant, during their visit to the Rooiwal waste-water treatment plant which is currently being upgraded.

Brink said the City has allocated R450 million towards upgrading Rooiwal over a three-year period and that R150m of the first allocation was in the process of being transferred to the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the implementing agent of the project.

EFF councillor Benjamin Disoloane took a swipe at Brink for making “empty promises”, saying the “City’s struggling finances and water problems in Hammanskraal continue to be albatross around the City’s neck. These are just empty promises”.

He said Mamelodi residents didn’t have water and that the municipal roads were riddled with potholes.

“But when you go to the suburbs people are enjoying everything,” he said.

Disoloane blamed the current administration for failing to in-source more security guards despite a previous council resolution to do so.

Brink used his speech to take stock of service delivery goals achieved since he assumed office in March, 2023.

For example, he said the Tshwane Metro police department has introduced the use of a new alcohol-testing bus to fight drunk driving,and the dangers associated with it.

The emergency services department, he said, responded to more than 2 000 fire incidents in the city and serviced 8 417 calls for the 2023/24 financial year.

The mayor also highlighted the townlands social housing development in Marabastad for low-income earners, saying it allowed people to live close to work opportunities in the inner city.

Launched last week by Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, the project consists of 1 200 units, including a community hall, football pitch, netball and volleyball fields, and an outdoor gym.

Brink said the upgrading of Kentron substation was on track to be completed by May 31, this year.

“The Pyramid substation refurbishment site handover was completed in March, 2024. The refurbishment of Wapadrand substation panels is scheduled for June, 2024,” he said.

The City, he said, established 17 Community Upliftment Precinct initiatives and concluded partnership agreements with several organisations for fixing potholes, cutting grass, and repairing street lights.

“We have taken the first steps to achieve 1 000MW of energy independence from Eskom by 2026.

“In January, 2024 the council approved the report giving permission to proceed with the 40-year lease of Rooiwal power station and Pretoria west power station after we received overwhelming support from the public,” Brink said.

He said the City was still grappling with the problem of illegal connections to the City’s water reticulation and electricity grid.

“Often illegal connections follow other breaches of the law, including land grabs and shack-farming. During the Covid-19 lockdown, land grabs proliferated across the country and our city was no exception,” he said.

The City will continue to enforce its revenue-collection campaign #TshwaneYaTima, in a bid to collect R6 billion of the municipality’s R23.3 bn debtors’ book in the next few months, Brink added.

He admitted that the City has not succeeded in securing its infrastructure against criminal attacks.

“The current system of appointing expensive security contractors to guard our assets does not work. Very often these companies have no security footprint in the communities where assets have to be guarded. There is no co-operation with community policing forums and local security structures,” he said.

The City recently received a qualified audit opinion from the auditor-general for the 2022/23 financial year after it previously incurred an adverse audit report.

Pretoria News

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