Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi has expressed concern about the province’s municipalities, claiming that they are being negatively impacted by dolomite, poor service delivery, the growth of informal settlements, problems with electricity and water, and a shortage of schools.
Lesufi was speaking at the joint committee led by the portfolio committee on cooperative governance and traditional affairs, the standing committee on public accounts, the standing committee on the auditor-general, and the Gauteng legislature on Thursday.
He said that although a total of 13 issues have been identified for urgent attention, dolomite has been added because it poses a risk to homes in the West Rand, especially Merafong.
Residents of Merafong, according to Lesufi, are in danger of having their houses engulfed by sinkholes, but they are unwilling to move to government-provided RDP homes because they have already spent money renovating their existing residences.
“Almost half, if not more, of that municipality is dolomite. When it rains, houses get swallowed, schools get swallowed, and roads get swallowed,” said Lesufi.
“If we don’t respond collectively as a government, a major disaster is about to happen, and all of us will be pointing fingers when this matter needs to be attended to as soon as possible.”
He said there is an urgent need to embrace innovative approaches and assist those living in danger.
Coalition governments
Additionally, he informed the committee that coalition governments frequently present obstacles and restrictions because of motions of no confidence.
He stated that there have been motion challenges against executive mayors in the West Rand district municipality, the City of Johannesburg, the City of Ekurhuleni, and the Sedibeng municipality.
According to him, these motions lead to instability in governance because they result in frequent changes to the mayoral committee’s membership as the leadership shifts.
“The issue of motions of no confidence is causing administrative and governance disruptions, and we are starting to lose key skilled people in some of these municipalities because they can’t stomach or stand the change of leadership that happens literally when these motions are conducted.
“There is an urgent need, therefore, to build a strong base in terms of skills development and skills support,” said Lesufi.
Political killings task team
Speaking about political crimes, Lesufi stated that his government has agreements with the South African Police Service to help protect those who expose corruption.
He highlighted that there have been a lot of politically motivated killings over the past seven years.
In his official announcement on Wednesday, Lesufi praised the creation of the Gauteng political killings task team.
In addition to the widespread taxi killings, he said this team will look into political killings, including those that are currently thought to be cold cases.
