Mayor Ngodwana calls for political stability in Ekurhuleni
The DA abstained from attending Ngodwanas inaugural State of the City Address.
In his inaugural State of the City Address (SOCA), Mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana called for political stability in the metro to eliminate frivolous motions of no confidence, stabilise service delivery and effectively provide essential services.
He spoke at the OR Tambo Government Precinct on Tuesday, where only the ANC-EFF coalition parties were in the audience.
The DA in Ekurhuleni did not attend because of the costs associated with the event.
Ousted mayor and DA caucus leader in Ekurhuleni Tania Campbell told the media they wrote to Ngodwanas office on April 21 to raise their proposal for the metro to host the SOCA and Budget Address in the ordinary proceedings of the council as an annual report.
They believe the proposal will not create unnecessary financial expenditure and fanfare.
However, the mayor did not heed the call and proceeded with the SOCA.
Ngodwana noted that political stability is central to providing basic security and human needs services for the future and continued sustainable growth in the city.
Without political stability, internal squabbles take centre stage, and services take a back seat while time is spent trying to resolve squabbles, resulting in delays in providing services, he added.
Ngodwana assured residents that the era of slothful service delivery had ended.
We commit to ensuring that what is expected of this collective happens and that residents get their moneys worth.
The characterisation of developmental local government dictates that we must provide quality, equitable and sustainable services to our people.
Transformation requires an understanding of the historical role of local government in creating and perpetuating local separation and inequity, and the impact of apartheid on municipal institutions.
To fight load-shedding in the metro, Ngodwana said there are plans to diversify energy sources and add to the electricity capacity to limit and contribute to ending load-shedding through the enhancement of access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable electricity:
Upgrading and maintaining the electricity network by ensuring the citys electrical assets and infrastructure are well managed and resilient, in addition to
improving access to electricity to all, especially broadening the service to new developments and informal settlements.
Re-block and electrify 12 additional informal settlements within the remainder of the term.
The city must be stringent toward individuals, organised systemic sabotage and syndicates making a living off stripping the city of its power – literally and figuratively.
Smart metering systems focusing on load control on residential and small commercial installations will be accelerated.
This will help customers better understand load control and that load reduction can be applied by smart systems reducing non-essential loads automatically.
Introduce load-shedding exemptions for qualifying industrial customers to ensure continuity of supply and revenue protection.
The mayor said it is time for the city to look into its own ventures that will give it greater access to the sourcing and distribution of water, as opposed to the current high level of reliance on Rand Waters infrastructure.
There are also the inevitable ever-increasing tariffs imposed by Rand Water, which adversely affect the citys operational budget, putting the bulk of the burden onto the citys taxpayers.
These measures will ensure a sustainable water supply:
To fix water leaks, including in-house leaks for indigent households, thus scaling down non-revenue water;
In building water security, the metro will ensure the completion and operationalisation of the 29 water reservoirs currently under construction. The good news regarding the plan is to complete nine of these new reservoirs within the next 100 days. These are Crossings, Edelweiss, Masetchaba, Fairland, Olifantsfontein, Isando, Etwatwa, Palmridge and Zulu/Xhosa.
Build the internal capacity for water tankers to mitigate the impact of water outages as and when there are water interruptions.
Assign and fund Ekurhuleni Water Care Company (ERWAT) to scale up the rehabilitation of waste facilities, reticulation and capacity expansion, given the fast-growing population.
Upscale the maintenance of sewer networks to minimise sewer spillages.
