The City of Ekurhuleni seems to be on the right track when it comes to the African National Congress (ANC-led) coalition.
In September 2016 the ANC found common ground and a shared purpose with the African Independent Congress (AIC), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Patriotic Alliance (PA) and the Independent Ratepayers Association South Africa (IRASA) and a coalition government in the City of Ekurhuleni.
The coalition parties came together for a media briefing on October 24.
The coalition has been busy since the local government elections when it was formed in 2016. According to executive mayor Mzwandile Masina there have been quite a number of meetings and engagements between the parties in the coalition. The political management team, with Masina as the mayor, has had 17 meetings to ensure that they continuously guide and direct the executives, the legislature and the administration.
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“The coalition has ensured that all budgets are passed on time because outside of the budget we cannot spend the public funds which are very important, as we put the people first,” said Masina.
“Our coalition has opened the Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC) which is the tender process to the public so that if there is a particular tender that the public shows interest in, there is no invitation needed.”
The coalition government goes to different communities through a range of programmes at a political level. Through taking the caucus to the people, the ANC has had 10 meetings with the other parties that are part of the coalition which can indicate their own outreach as they go on the ground.
“The first thing that we were able to do is increasing bursaries. Our government looked into the socio-economic condition in the city. The bursary system used to support about 297 children in a population of about 3.5 million people. The coalition has increased the number to about 1 850 and is still ramping up the number because we want to increase the number at about 300 million children receiving bursaries by the time we leave office,” said Masina.
According to the mayor, the healthy state of the city is stable and moving in the right direction.
Grant funding increased from 82 per cent to 92 per cent.
The collection rate is at 93 per cent which is the highest rate in the history of Ekurhuleni.
“The economy in the city is doing well. We have had five investment projects in three years, 98 000 job opportunities and we have the Mintiro Empowerment Programme,” said Masina.
The IRASA spokesperson for Ekurhuleni, Isak Berg said that the city needs stability.
“We have one of the best municipalities if I can say so myself. I know that people come to Ekurhuleni for stability because they know they will receive service delivery and live in a stable metro,” said Berg as he concluded the meeting.
