Can all DA-started projects in Joburg, ANC allegedly orders

The ANC has allegedly given instruction for all DA-initiated projects in the City of Johannesburg Metro to be canned even if they were effective, and the governing party was forging ahead with purging all senior officials who worked under ousted the DA-led administration, the DA says.

DA caucus leader in the City of Johannesburg Funzela Ngobeni said he received complaints that political instructions had been given to the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department that any project that was initiated and associated with the DA must be canned. This was regardless of how effective it was.

Former DA member of the mayoral committee for safety, Michael Sun, who is now shadow MMC for the same position, cited several instances where it was decided to stop important project initiated by the DA.

According to Sun, one of those were the raiding of illegal occupants at inner-city buildings. He said the project has been stopped and this was proved by the fact that no raids had been conducted since the ANC came to power in the City.

Sun said despite the fact that illegal occupants in the city posed a danger to working residents who lived in the city, the ANC decided to do nothing about them.

Sun said the ANC-led council had decided to take no action against illegal dumping. He said instead of fining illegal dumpers and impound their vehicles, the ANC instructed to simply give the dumpers a warning.

Ngobeni said the decision of the ANC’s Johannesburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo to require that new JMPD officers go back for training was not based on fact or following due processes. It was merely a vindictive act to spite the DA.

He described as “utterly baseless and false allegations” Makhubo’s claim at a recent media briefing that the JMPD and the Emergency Management Services had been run into the ground under the DA administration.

“The City of Johannesburg’s new ANC mayor, Geoff Makhubo, as well as his cabinet have done nothing but try to turn around the progress made, especially within the JMPD and EMS, in the last three years by the DA-led coalition government,” Ngubeni said.

It was not true that the City had five operational fire engines because when the DA-led government stepped down in November , the EMS had 27 operational fire appliances, including 12 fire engines. While in government, the DA-led administration procured ten new fire engines, two newly refurbished fire engines, 12 Rapid Response Vehicles and 42 new ambulances for EMS, he added.

He questions Makhubo’s intention when he made the allegations about only five fire engines as a ploy to spend more money, and overlook those procured and ready to be delivered.

Ngobeni said that an ANC MMC was caught red-handed attempting to use her political position to remove JMPD chief of police, David Tembe, showed the shoddy manner the city was being managed under the ANC. Sun added that Tembe’s purported removal was not a rumour, but a fact.

Ngobeni said by interfering in Tembe’s appointment, the MMC had broken several laws including the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000, Schedule 1 on conduct of councillors. The Act required that a councillor must perform the function of office in good faith, honestly and in a transparent manner, and at all times act in the best interest of the municipality and in such a way that the credibility and integrity of the municipality are not compromised.

It further stated that a councillor “may not, except provided by law, interfere in the management or administration of any department of the municipal council unless mandated by council and give or purport to give any instruction to any employees of the council except when authorised to do so…”

“I advise Mayor Makhubo and his cabinet to focus on the solid foundation laid by the DA-led coalition government administration during the past three years and forge ahead in the best interest of the residents of Johannesburg,” Ngobeni said.

He said former DA MMC Sun was widely lauded for turning around the JMPD by strengthening its core functions, as well as that of the EMS and his fight against corruption. Under Sun, 1,500 new JMPD officers were capacitated and in November last year 1,000 new recruits were welcomed into the JMPD ranks, while the K9 Narcotics Unit was established in late 2016.

Operation Buya Mthetho was another major victory under the DA and R1.3 billion in lost revenue had been recovered while 6,000 case were under investigation by the anti-corruption unit involving R35 billion in transactions.

Ngobeni said corruption remained the DA’s public enemy number one.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.