The Midvaal amalgamation: at the centre of vested interests

As if the crazy logic of the Municipal Democratic Board (MDB) in amalgamating Midvaal and Emfuleni wasn’t good enough, clear conflict of interests have come to light. This conflict of interest is as clear as daylight; MDB Chairperson, Landiwe Mahlangu, is a non-executive member of a company called Sea Kay Holdings. This is a company that provides construction services, which includes low-cost housing to government. Guess What? As far back as 2008, the Department of Housing in Gauteng appointed Sea Kay Holdings to build 1500 houses in Emfuleni. This contract alone cost R58,2 million. But this is not the end of it! Landiwe Mahlangu is also a non-executive member of Interwaste, a waste management company. So to all to see, in a public document, in the Emfuleni Annual Report of 2012/2013; Interwaste operates the Waldrift landfill site in Emfuleni. If this isn’t a conflict of interest on behalf of the MBD Chairperson and the decision making process when it came to Midvaal, then I don’t know what is. Mahlangu clearly has vested and business interests in Emfuleni. The process in the merging of the municipalities of Midvaal and Emfuleni is obviously called to question. The community is overwhelmingly against this decision. Secondly, the records of these two municipalities each speak for themselves. The ANC’S unbelievable statement that the merger will bring a “fresh start for the people” of Midvaal and development and prosperity in the area. Only in cloud koo-koo land and in South Africa can a party with such a unambiguous history of bad government in the area claim that this decision will benefit Midvaal. The Auditor General (AG) has given Emfuleni disclaimers, adverse opinions and qualified audits in the last 11 years while Midvaal has constantly received unqualified audits. Unqualified audits are the best audit a municipality can receive. In 2006 Emfuleni was identified as a municipality that needed to be “rescued” by the National Government and was placed under “Project Consolidate” under the guardianship of the Department of Provincial and Local Government. The conclusion was reached after the AG confirmed in 2004 that municipal officials had colluded with other parties to sell off council assets at rock bottom prices. According to the report, one official scrapped a R10 million debt in rates on the properties in question. This however was not the beginning of illegal practices in Emfuleni. In late 2001 the municipality was owed R867 million by its debtors, by early 2003 the figure had increased to more than R1 billion. By October 2005, Emfuleni was owed R1,7 billion by its debtors. Only a year later with an outstanding debt of R2 billion, it had the worst culture of non-payment of all municipalities in the country, with a debtor collection period of 489 days. Emfuleni had systematically raised a debt completely out of control. Of course all this translated, and continues to translate, to less delivery. Let’s compare Midvaal, what a contrast! Midvaal has a 100% rates collection rate, the only local government to do so in Gauteng. As a result the poor benefits from this the most with Midvaal offering one of the highest indigent programmes in South Africa, at R3200. The facts are as clear as crystal. The ANC argues that they want the new metro to benefit from the good governance of Midvaal. Of course this is nonsense as experience tells us that this will not happen. Before the 2011 local government elections Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said that; “The ANC has never been defeated by anybody. This area, this municipality, belongs to the ANC.” Again, the ANC’s attitude is clearly displayed; it believes that it should govern by right, by hook or by crook, and not because it has been voted in to do so. Day by day more and more information is coming to light of just how ludicrous this merger decision was. The DA will continue to do what it legally can do to prevent this.

The Midvaal amalgamation: at the centre of vested interests

As if the crazy logic of the Municipal Democratic Board (MDB) in amalgamating Midvaal and Emfuleni wasn’t good enough, clear conflict of interests have come to light. This conflict of interest is as clear as daylight; MDB Chairperson, Landiwe Mahlangu, is a non-executive member of a company called Sea Kay Holdings. This is a company that provides construction services, which includes low-cost housing to government. Guess What? As far back as 2008, the Department of Housing in Gauteng appointed Sea Kay Holdings to build 1500 houses in Emfuleni. This contract alone cost R58,2 million. But this is not the end of it! Landiwe Mahlangu is also a non-executive member of Interwaste, a waste management company. So to all to see, in a public document, in the Emfuleni Annual Report of 2012/2013; Interwaste operates the Waldrift landfill site in Emfuleni. If this isn’t a conflict of interest on behalf of the MBD Chairperson and the decision making process when it came to Midvaal, then I don’t know what is. Mahlangu clearly has vested and business interests in Emfuleni. The process in the merging of the municipalities of Midvaal and Emfuleni is obviously called to question. The community is overwhelmingly against this decision. Secondly, the records of these two municipalities each speak for themselves. The ANC’S unbelievable statement that the merger will bring a “fresh start for the people” of Midvaal and development and prosperity in the area. Only in cloud koo-koo land and in South Africa can a party with such a unambiguous history of bad government in the area claim that this decision will benefit Midvaal. The Auditor General (AG) has given Emfuleni disclaimers, adverse opinions and qualified audits in the last 11 years while Midvaal has constantly received unqualified audits. Unqualified audits are the best audit a municipality can receive. In 2006 Emfuleni was identified as a municipality that needed to be “rescued” by the National Government and was placed under “Project Consolidate” under the guardianship of the Department of Provincial and Local Government. The conclusion was reached after the AG confirmed in 2004 that municipal officials had colluded with other parties to sell off council assets at rock bottom prices. According to the report, one official scrapped a R10 million debt in rates on the properties in question. This however was not the beginning of illegal practices in Emfuleni. In late 2001 the municipality was owed R867 million by its debtors, by early 2003 the figure had increased to more than R1 billion. By October 2005, Emfuleni was owed R1,7 billion by its debtors. Only a year later with an outstanding debt of R2 billion, it had the worst culture of non-payment of all municipalities in the country, with a debtor collection period of 489 days. Emfuleni had systematically raised a debt completely out of control. Of course all this translated, and continues to translate, to less delivery. Let’s compare Midvaal, what a contrast! Midvaal has a 100% rates collection rate, the only local government to do so in Gauteng. As a result the poor benefits from this the most with Midvaal offering one of the highest indigent programmes in South Africa, at R3200. The facts are as clear as crystal. The ANC argues that they want the new metro to benefit from the good governance of Midvaal. Of course this is nonsense as experience tells us that this will not happen. Before the 2011 local government elections Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said that; “The ANC has never been defeated by anybody. This area, this municipality, belongs to the ANC.” Again, the ANC’s attitude is clearly displayed; it believes that it should govern by right, by hook or by crook, and not because it has been voted in to do so. Day by day more and more information is coming to light of just how ludicrous this merger decision was. The DA will continue to do what it legally can do to prevent this.

Forced Smart Card fee is anti-poor

During a recent Home Affairs Portfolio Committee, Department of Home Affairs Director-General, Mkuseli Apleni, confirmed that all South Africans will now have to pay R140 for their first Smart ID card and not just replacements as previously stated by Minister Pandor and the Department’s communications. For millions of South African’s R140 is literally the difference between survival and starvation, and the new Smart ID Card price poses a serious threat to their financial security. In Parliament I requested Minister Pandor to provide clarity on the payment of fees. In the Minister’s reply she confirmed that everyone will be expected to pay the fee except for all persons on the SASSA database and all 16 year old who are first-time applicants. The Minister advised that as Smart Cards are to be rolled out in the next 4 to 6 years, poor people will have the time to save for the fee. Imposing a new ID system on South Africa’s citizens and then forcing them to pay for it effectively puts a price on citizenship that not everyone can afford, and would exclude them from electoral and social security processes once the Green Barcoded IDs are phased out. The Minister has clearly demonstrated exactly how arrogant and out-of-touch she really is. When a person is poor and his/her priority is to put food in their stomachs, an ID fee will not feature high on the person’s list of priorities. We will continue to fight so that poor people are exempt from paying a fee for the new Smart card IDs.

The e-Tolls are indeed unpatriotic!

I recently drove past one of our now-famous billboards which most people love, “E-Tolls. Proudly bought to you by the ANC.” I couldn’t help but feel the rage that Gauteng motorists experience when reading the billboard. It also reminded me of the reaction from the Transport Minister herself, Dipuo Peters who described the billboards as “unpatriotic.” I want to thank the Minister for being honest; at last a government member that is honest about the E-toll project! Indeed eTolls are is very unpatriotic. Particularly as most of the money made from this project will be flying out to Austria whilst the South African taxpayer gets fleeced daily. Yet, the Minister is supporting and defending this unpatriotic project! To make matters worse, the Government Gazette on e-toll tariffs indicates 82.7% of road users (Class A2) will pay a maximum of R100 per month if they are registered as e-tag users. But if you use SANRAL’s own schematic on the toll gantries and then connecting this to the gazetted tariffs to be paid by registered e-tag users during peak periods the DA has estimated costs on several routes around Gauteng and established that the costs will in fact be much higher. How then can SANRAL say that more than 80% of users carrying an e-tag will pay a maximum of R100 maximum per month? SANRAL has resorted to deceiving South Africans about the system itself as well as what it will cost the public irrespective whether one is a registered user or not. The Transport Minister needs to decide if she will continue supporting this system which few support or whether she still thinks eTolls are unpatriotic in which case she needs to halt it now! Now if only we could get the President to realise how unpatriotic and embarrassing his “road in Malawi” comments were, when addressing this issue, not only to South Africans but to Malawians and indeed the whole of Africa!

The Midvaal demarcation is about ANC dominance

The decision and actions by the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) to ignore the over 9800 objections from people in Midvaal to amalgamate this local authority into the new Emfuleni Metro speaks volumes about its impartiality, which clearly isn’t there! For months now the citizens of the Midvaal municipality have been hard at work expressing their opposition to this amalgamation. After all, who can blame them! Midvaal is the best municipality in Gauteng; this isn’t me saying this but the ANC provincial government itself when it released the results of its report which ranked Midvaal as the best in Gauteng in terms of quality of life. Due to its rapid economic growth Midvaal is the fastest growing municipality in the province. In December 2010 Midvaal was ranked 23rd of 231 municipalities making in the 10% of high scoring municipalities in the country. Recently Midvaal moved up 10 places in the annual Municipal Productivity Index for South Africa, placing it within the top 5% of all local governments in the country. Large companies such as Sedibeng Breweries, South Africa’s distributors of Heineken were attracted into the area by setting up its head office there. Naturally, this translates into new job opportunities and job creation which makes Midvaal the municipality with the lowest unemployment rate. Success attracts success; testament to this is the huge investment into the Eye of Africa Golfing Estate development and the Oprah Winfrey School. Of course not everyone is happy with these successes, certainly the ANC isn’t. Midvaal has shown up all the other ANC-run councils. The giant metros in Gauteng are particularly annoyed especially considering that they have a healthier rates base, infrastructure and budget and yet can’t get their act right the way that Midvaal has. They appear oblivious to the fact that the ANC policies of cadre deployment, continuous mal-administration and corruption, their arrogance and attitude of unaccountability are a great part of the problem. In addition to all the “proof is in the pudding” successes, Midvaal conducts its IDP (Integrated Development Plan) Meetings with MMC’s (Members of the Mayoral Committee) present with the Mayor, our dynamic Bongani Baloyi, personally present at the majority of such meetings. All this is unheard of, or exercised, ever in any ANC government in Gauteng! In order to stop Midvaal from achieving those “thorn-in-their-side” successes, and to stop that pesky Mayor and his Committee from continuing this good work, the ANC did what it has traditionally done; use its loyal and subservient institution; the MDB. The plan was simple: pretend to care what the people of Midvaal think by receiving their opinions on this matter and then simply to ignore them and instead heed the commands from Luthuli House to effectively obliterate Midvaal from existence! Simply put: make Midvaal disappear, ensure that it is “swallowed up” into the Emfuleni Metro so that it can feed off the Midvaal successes. Then start providing the sub-standard service that the rest of Emfuleni and surrounding areas have been getting so that the DA’s excellent legacy can start disappearing. I’m guessing that the ANC will think that all this will happen quite effortlessly with minimal opposition, except for two factors. Firstly, the DA won’t give up and will fight to the end and secondly, it is only a few months before a General Election. Gauteng is almost guaranteed to be DA run by next year thanks to the ANC who are attempting to cripple every citizen of Gauteng with the terrible Tolls. This shocking decision of the ANC, via the MDB, to steal Gauteng of Midvaal will simply add fuel to the already mounting fire against the ANC. I have no doubt that the Demarcation Board will defend itself as an independent and democratic institution that works for, and respects, the will of the people. If this is the case, I find it rather strange that Mayor Baloyi was prevented from sitting in at the Demarcation Board’s announcement on its Midvaal decision. This is unthinkable and ludicrous; surely the Mayor of the affected local authority should’ve been allowed to listen to a MDB decision made about the municipality he leads! The MDB actions tell us where they stand. I have no doubt that an ANC mayor would’ve been welcomed in with both arms. The fight is not over. Every legal tool will be used to fight what is the ANC’s main objective; the objective that it has had all along; to be in power and control no matter what. The ANC can no longer take the fact that more and more people of Midvaal from all communities continue to vote for the DA election after election. The more the local council does for its people, the more its people personally enjoy its fruits and want to return the government that so effectively and efficiently serves them. This is the basis of democracy. The ANC however know that they will never be able to win at the ballot box as the DA is simply doing what it is supposed to do too well. So instead, the ANC is trying steal Midvaal. Shameful!