Pretoria - Opposition parties in the Pretoria have urged voters to remember the controversial smart meters debacle, TribeOne Festival disaster costing taxpayers millions and the irregular expenditure incurred by the metro when they vote next Wednesday.
The Freedom Front Plus, in particular, believed the key to turning the fortunes of the city around would be to form a coalition government.
The city, however, pointed to its service delivery successes and challenges it faced as a result of the incorporation of struggling municipalities into its fold back in 2011.
Sibusiso Xaba, PAC: The past five years were marked by irrational prioritising in the City of Tshwane budget, which focused on elitist projects, examples of these being the free wi-fi, A Re Yeng, cultural concerts and golf days.
These projects had little impact on the quality of life in the city. The council displayed an absence of mind on the long-term agenda.
The bus rapid transit operates in areas that have a municipality bus service. This happens despite the fact that Hammanskraal remains a public transport nightmare.
International musicians such as Nicki Minaj bagged millions to perform in the city, but the TribeOne Festival never happened.
Awie Erasmus, Freedom Front Plus: The past five years were not the best in the history of our city. There were many incidents of fraud, maladministration and lack of service delivery. It is important to note that there were also some top performing municipal employees and managers.
During the past five years, the FF+ met some of the most qualified and capable city employees who truly deserve to be applauded. Our experience was often that projects had fair intentions, but there was a lack of political will to complete them successfully and on time. There are still possibilities for the city to prosper, but not while under the control of the ANC government.
The solution to the city’s problems will also not be solved by the DA, or any other party on its own; the solution lies with a coalition of parties that govern the city.
Solly Msimanga, DA: The capital city needs change that will move it forward because progress has stalled under the ANC. After the initial gains made following the fall of apartheid, under the ANC government Tshwane has steadily declined to a point where it can no longer profess to be a city of opportunities. The past five years have seen unemployment in the city increase from 24.2% in the 2011 census to 26% in the latest quarterly labour force survey.
There are now 517 000 citizens in Tshwane who are either without a job or have given up looking for employment.
Further to this, the most recent non-financial census of municipalities found that Tshwane had more people than any other metro that did not have access to a water delivery point within 200m of their home - a total of 113 212 consumer units. The general household survey revealed that the city has the lowest percentage of households with access to basic sanitation among the metro municipalities.
Many residents of informal settlements are forced to resort to illegal electrical connections because the city is not providing an alternative. Clearly the ANC has failed to deliver the services residents deserve.
The golden thread that links the ANC in Tshwane’s failures is pervasive corruption and financial mismanagement. For the past five years, Tshwane has not received a single clean audit. In the last financial year, R1.8bn was lost through unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure according to the auditor-general. Together we can bring change to the city, and turn it into a hub of opportunity for residents to live the life they deserve.
Tiyiselani Babane, COPE: The auditor-general always made a finding of weak leadership at top management level.
Employment was undermined by the ruling party with membership of the ruling party as a minimum requirement for EPWP employees.
Failure by the city to fix leaking bulk water supply in Phomolong resulted in a huge burst that cost us two very young lives.
Their most uncaring political decision of all was when they swept informal traders out of the CBD. Amid poverty and unemployment, the traders had the might of the metro police unleashed on them.
The money that Tshwane wasted in the past five years is unprecedented.
They spent R140 million in a golf event played in the most secluded places of the city.
The Nicky Minaj R10m story left everyone in shock. Which government on earth takes money of the poor and throw it away to the rich?
We also witnessed the ANC pulling off one of the biggest scandals with the Peu smart meter contract.
And the entire country was shocked after the ANC was burning down the city over a mayoral candidate born in another part of the country.
Pretoria News