Cachalia: Ekurhuleni mayor making empty promises

It seems as though opposition parties still don’t buy into all the promises made by the newly elected executive mayor of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, Mzwandile Masina.

According to Ekurhuleni DA leader Ghaleb Cachalia, a lot of promises have been made to the community of Ekurhuleni but not all of them have been kept.

Cachalia delivered a speech at a council meeting on Thursday, September 29, opposing the executive mayor Mzwandile Masina’s speech on service delivery. He said the mayor has made a number of speeches about job creation and economic growth but no plans were being put in place.

“If anything has been done other than promises, we would have been told. All that we know is that 683 000 jobs have been lost and the number is still rising. If there is any plan in this regard, the mayor must be transparent about it,” he said.

“The executive mayor has promised to build hundred thousands of houses for the poor over the next five years; the question is how that can be possible if they had failed to build half the number of houses in the past 20 years.

“The community of Tsakane Ext 10 informal settlement recently found themselves being shot at by the Red Ants protesting over the same issue (housing) and a number of protesters were injured.

“The mayor has also promised to electrify all 190 informal settlements in Ekurhuleni over the next five years, and speed up that process. Still there is no plan put into place as to how they will go about doing that. If there was any plan we would have been made aware of it or it would have been put under public scrutiny,” said Cachalia.

Cachalia complained about R735 million that the municipality lost in un-metred water revenue due to poor maintenance and theft in the last financial year.

“The thing is, we do not see anywhere measures in place to ensure this comes to an end. The worse part is that this pushes accountability and responsibility onto residents.”

Cachalia also mentioned the quality and functioning of the metro’s centre. “The call centre phones rarely get answered and there is no phone lines to assist residents after hours for wrongful disconnections. Call centre staff are unfriendly and provide incorrect information,” he said.

Cachalia also mentioned the issue of unqualified officials occupying top positions, leading to delays in service delivery.