Johannesburg - The ANC in Joburg has issued an ultimatum to its councillors to serve the people or get the boot for non-performance.
It is not only errant councillors who will face the ANC’s wrath – the party has urged the police and their Joburg metro counterparts to arrest and prosecute all those responsible for violent service delivery protests.
The warning was issued by ANC regional chairman and mayor Parks Tau at the tail end of the party’s 13th regional conference at the Cedar Park Hotel in Woodmead on Sunday.
Tau was quick to confirm that his party’s aim was to retain control of the City of Joburg. Delegates had ordered the newly elected regional executive committee to set up strategies to retain the ANC majority in the council.
The immediate aim was to assess the performance of ANC councillors.
“Conference has instructed us to assess the performance of our councillors. We, therefore, resolved to increase our public participation and identify the complaints raised by our different communities.
“If some councillors are found not to serve the interests of their communities, the party will ask that councillor to leave the position.”
Tau said the ANC would be prepared to go for by-elections where the number of errant councillors was found to be on the increase.
In the past, the ANC, particularly in Joburg, has been reluctant to deal effectively with errant councillors, but Tau indicated a change was imminent.
He said that during the 2016 local government elections, the regional ANC would do better than the 53 percent of the national vote the party obtained in May this year.
“The people of Joburg are happy with the delivery levels of the City of Joburg. We have the highest capital budget compared to all other municipalities in the country. At the moment, our capital budget is R10.4 billion and it will increase to R11bn next year.”
The budget allocation for services would determine his party’s retention of Joburg.
Tau also announced that the conference had given him the mandate to establish an ombudsman to deal with corruption and maladministration in his government.
He said the delegates had endorsed their base discussion document, which called for the appointment of an ombudsman and the opening of the public tender system in an attempt to fight corruption.
“The procurement for city services should be made more transparent by opening supply chain management systems to the public,” Tau said.
He also said violent protests, theft and vandalism of public infrastructure threatened investment in infrastructure as well as social programmes, and delayed development.
“The hundreds of millions the municipality spends to rehabilitate damaged infrastructure such as replacing stolen cables is money diverted from other pressing and critical developmental needs in our communities,” Tau said.
The city was advocating for stiffer penalties for “such destructive behaviour”.
The Star