Rev Chris Mathebula: Aiming to take power back to the people

Television preacher and Independent Citizens Movement (ICM) mayoral candidate for Ekurhuleni, Rev Chris Mathebula, has been given a clear mandate to pursue a people-focused manifesto that will ensure at least 95% of the metro’s capex budget is dedicated to service delivery.

The budget would be spent in an open, fair, competitive and transparent manner while ensuring the aspirations of residents at ward level were met.

Mathebula, leader of the Kempton Park-based Hope Restoration Ministries, is standing as an independent candidate under the umbrella of ICM, a civil society organisation inspired by his book Devoted Citizen and the need to subscribe to Godly values and norms. 

He promised to take power back to the people where it belonged.

In an interview on the sidelines of the ICM manifesto launch in Midrand last Wednesday, Mathebula said: “We want to take power back to the people – we are pursuing a bottom-up approach because over the years we let leaders lead instead of the people. 

We want to empower those who are already doing something on their own to do more under the slogan of ‘Vukuzenzele’ [wake up and do it for yourself],” Mathebula said.

He said the most important issue was to introduce ethical leadership which had been missing in SA.

“We want to provide leadership because there is currently a serious gap when it came to ethics and integrity. We want to hold people accountable at the end of the day.”

Rev Chris Mathebula

Our people do not want debates. They want ethical leadership that will deliver diligently and excellently,” Mathebula said.

ICM, which derived its policy operation on its nine-point plan contained in its manifest, would rid the Ekurhuleni of unethical and corrupt officials by giving everyone an opportunity to voluntarily resign if they are aware their integrity has been compromised in any way.

It would investigate all allegations, prosecute and recover all the ill-gotten gains from the proceeds of corruption.

He said the party would develop a policy on disclosure, lifestyle audits and encouraging of whistleblowing including vetting of all senior managers and supply chain management staff.

As part of its promised service delivery par excellence plan, once in power, the ICM would develop a standard service delivery charter, the first of its kind in SA politics.

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The charter would have clear and measurable standard delivery times in responding to waste collection, water and electricity interruptions, potholes and other services based on the Apex budget.

Under the ICM, the metro’s customer care would be restructured so that the customer relationship management became the custodian of the city’s customer’s needs to provide competitive and superior customer service.

At the same time, the organisation promised to improve working conditions for all people working for government and ensure a conducive environment for excellence.

Necessary support and resources would be provided for communities to organise themselves into committees and forums for all special needs of their areas at a ward level.

“For every challenge and societal ill, there should be a committee of interested and affected individuals with the necessary know-hows of the subject matter,” the party said in its manifesto.

“Every decision including implementation of projects and service delivery request will be done in conjunction with the ward councillor and the community,” concluded Chris Mathebula