Tshwane’s mayor visits Bronkhorstspruit as DA candidate

DA Tshwane mayoral candidate, Mr Randall Williams, is committed to getting things done in Tshwane.

He visited Bronkhorstspruit on October 11 to communicate with the locals.

The residents of Bronkhorstspruit feel that they are neglected.

Some residents who do not even have meters still receive bills after 27 years and counting.

The town is serviced by a substation that gets its power from Kusile Power Station.

From the substation the distribution is regulated by City of Tshwane.

Regular problems from Eskom result in a lot of power outages. Electrical equipment gets damaged with power outages and needs to be fixed by Tshwane.

Business owners in Ekandustria and in Bronkhorstspruit voiced their concerns around the power outages and the effect thereof on their businesses.

Mr Williams listened to the concerns, made notes and ensured the community that he will make contact with the relevant MMC and MPL.

He also went to the municipal offices and had a meeting with the RED to address the customer care desk.

Thereafter, he went to the license offices to experience the services first hand.

“For eight months the city was under the control of unelected and deployed ANC administrators while the Democratic Alliance fought in the courts to get this decision overturned and return sound governance to the capital.

“We succeeded in the end, as in October of 2020 the administrators were removed from office and as councilors, we were reinstated,” Mr Williams said.

He claims that the eight months under the ANC administrators was a disturbing period for the city, it also came just as the Covid-19 first wave hit.

“In those eight months, the legacy of the ANC administrators was one of financial mismanagement and failure.”

“The DA’s surplus of R297 million which we left in March 2020 was decimated such that by the time the administrators were removed we inherited a budget deficit of over R4 billion,” Said Mr Williams

Revenue collections plummeted, dropping to as low as 75%, such that the administrators accessed a short-term loan of R800 million to keep the city running. Credit control processes were suspended so the city had no way to stabilise its finances as the debtors’ book then hit R18 billion.”

Mr Williams said there was a rapid deterioration in the quality of response times to water leaks and electricity outages.

“Streetlights, traffic signals and potholes went months without being fixed.

“In fact, in some cases, there was found that there were issues that were not addressed for the entire duration that ANC were in office.

“That was the legacy of the ANC administrators in just eight months, they brought the city to its knees,” Mr Williams added.

“I was humbled to be elected mayor and assume office from the beginning of November 2020.

“From the first day that I returned to the office, I encountered service delivery backlogs that went back months in almost every sphere of the work that is required from the city.

“As you can imagine, the pressure from the residents to turn the city around was immediate. Simply put we had to restore financial sustainability and drive basic service delivery.

“Immediately, I implemented a weekly Service Delivery War Room that began tracking the very basics in the city.”

The City of Tshwane created comprehensive dashboards to monitor how many water leaks were reported, how long they took to get fixed, the same with electricity outages.

“In 11 months we have fixed over 150 000 streetlights, Repaired over 20 000 water leaks, Filled over 30 000 potholes. We pushed to ensure that we restore the majority of power outages that are reported within 7.5 hours. Over 10 000 illegal dumping sites have been cleared in areas across the city.”

The City of Tshwane is striving to manifest a 10 key intervention robust plan that consists of prioritising the electrical grid and water infrastructure, maintaining a clean and protected natural environment, and developing road infrastructure and advance mobility, just to name a few strategies that are being implemented.”