EFF members protest against Ramaphosa’s speech

Before President Cyril Ramaphosa could address residents at the Ugu Sports and Leisure Centre on Friday last week, EFF members of parliament protested against his address by quietly standing up and displaying placards which read: ‘Ramaphosa has broken the law, Ramaphosa is kidnapper’.

Ramaphosa was on the South Coast to close the Taking Parliament to the People (TPTTP) programme by the National Council of Provinces (NCOP).

While the EFF tried to prevent Ramaphosa from addressing residents because of the Phala Phala farm saga, speaking at the podium, the president said reports from the Auditor-General and National Treasury and the State of Local Government reports point to inefficiency, maladministration, lack of financial controls and poor governance in many municipalities.

He said all of these affect local government’s ability to provide the basic services people need, to lead lives of quality and dignity.
Ramaphosa said that is why they should welcome the new Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Act, which is an important tool for improving the manner in which municipalities function and for accountability.

“Among other things, the Act disallows municipal officials from holding political office, defines competency criteria for the appointment of municipal managers and strengthens the framework for performance evaluation. This should be viewed alongside the Framework for the Professionalisation of the Public Sector, which was adopted by Cabinet last month. This makes specific proposals to ensure merit-based recruitment and promotion and more effective consequence management for all public servants. This is going to have a big impact on how government, at all levels, works,” he said.

He added that the task of this year’s Taking Parliament to the People was to deliberate on what is being done – and what must be done – to strengthen local government.
Ramaphosa said the interaction with the people of Ugu District Municipality has no doubt done much to enrich the NCOP’s deliberations.

“As part of strengthening local government performance, we are striving to entrench the District Development Model as an integrated, multidisciplinary approach to government planning and implementation. We often spend a great deal of time diagnosing the problem and painting a picture of what a poorly-run municipality looks like. We should instead be focused on what an ideal municipality should look like and how to build such municipalities across the country,” said Ramaphosa.

Meanwhile, Democratic Alliance NCOP spokesperson, Tim Brauteseth told Ugu residents that the issue of water in the district shows that the current government works at a snail’s pace, adding that these residents need a fast and effective government.

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