The call for Tshwane’s executive mayor to resign is unfounded and misplaced, says Blessing Manale.
Pretoria - We have noted calls by leaders of regional structures of the SACP and the ANC Youth League for the dissolution of the City of Tshwane Council and for the municipality to be put under administration due to what they call numerous grievances and memorandums submitted over a period of time.
The call for the executive mayor to resign is an unfounded and misplaced demand and is not informed by reason.
It is in our understanding a publicity gimmick by Barekisi Forum, the SACP regional structures and the ANCYL with its inherent challenges of lack of programmatic response to their constituency issues to remain relevant.
What is disturbing is how the story was reported, headlined and billboarded by the Pretoria News. We have been disfavoured, and fragile relationship has been exposed to tatters by a dubious phantom, incumbent upon us to unveil.
In a break from my tradition and etiquette of journalism and its twin, the art of media relations, I am left with no option but to take a broadside at the editorial approach to the story which was published on October 8 headlined “Get rid of city mayor”. [Ed’s note: On IOL the story was headlined ‘Get rid of Tshwane mayor’.]
I think it was instructive and demonstrated a stance taken by the Pretoria News to make it a lead.
On the substance of the issues, there was minimal referencing despite most of the issues being in the public domain, with the views of the city and the correct facts recorded in volumes.
Despite an established value on the need to profile the organisations or persons speaking on these issues, the newspapers created a belief that it was irrelevant as to who was making these calls and allegations. It is relevant because it is at the heart of integrity – a value in the journalism code. These “numerous organisations” and their leaders are as a matter of public knowledge, expelled former members of the ANC (the ruling party in case relevance is questioned), they are the common denominator of all violent protests in Tshwane.
Performances of the executive mayor and his mayoral committee have been plausible and service-oriented.
It is unfortunate that some organisations have never deemed it fit to make submission to council on policy and programmatic issues in the city, including the Integrated Development Plan, the various spatial frameworks, as well as other programmes and projects targeted at the constituencies they claim to represent.
We believe the city and office of the executive mayor will remain accountable and we shall pursue our development agenda with more vigour in spite of these tribulations . We regret that despite these explanations and corrective measures we take, the city and the executive mayor remain under attack by, among others, members of the youth league of the mayor’s organisation and alliance partners. We are compelled to call for an honest assessment of whether these are not machinations of low-intensity warfare on the institutional integrity of the city.
On Governance Issues and Leadership
“The City of Tshwane leadership must perform above the acceptable standards and become champions of performance.”
These were the words of executive mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa during the performance agreements signing ceremony with his 10-member cabinet.
The MMCs entered into renewed performance agreements which outline the mayor’s clear service delivery expectations for each one as per the IDP.
The agreements – reviewed quarterly – provide performance indicators and targets on the key focus areas of each MMC and their score cards and agreements are public documents.
We are as a city setting higher performance standards and committing to be transparent.
“The most important characteristic of these performance agreements is that they talk to the issues raised by communities through the mayoral izimbizo and councillors’ public meetings.
This gesture marks an important milestone for the city and its residents.
On the Dinokeng Festival
The city does not seek to find fault in any of its officials and we are convinced that our team exercised oversight in the execution of the project .We appreciate how the city manager exercised his authority and diligence over the matter and the call for his recall or resignation by the ANCYL is unfounded and ill-informed.
We will pursue the rights of the city in ensuring that the organisers of the event – Rockstart4000 (led by SONY Music) – meet their obligations though a legal process as per the contractual agreement.
We have provided the auditor-general with all relevant documents to ensure public and independent scrutiny of the collapse of the Tribe One Festival.
On Illegal Street Trading Issues
We have reiterated that the investigation into the death of Foster Rivombo, who was allegedly shot by metro police earlier this year, remains in the hands of the SAPS, who are awaiting a decision by the NDPP to proceed.
Rivombo was not an informal trader as reported in the media and claimed by Barekisi. He was visiting his brother, who is an informal trader.
The city recognises informal traders organisations co-operating with the city – Tshwane Informal Traders’ Forum; Tshwane Informal Trader’s Council; Tshwane NAFCOC and Tshwane Micro Entrepreneur’s League.
These are part of our committees championing the way forward for the sector and encouraging the city to go ahead with by-law enforcement as a measure to get rid of illegal traders. We signed a co-operation agreement in 2012.
The agreement entails co-operation in dealing with challenges faced by informal traders, including the lack of adequate amenities (sanitation and ablution facilities), insufficient demarcated areas for trading, lack of overnight storage facilities and congestion at designated areas which creates incredible competition.
Tshwane Barekisi Forum, which has been in the forefront of mobilising informal traders countrywide and making the city ungovernable was one of the recognised representative organisations of informal traders in the City of Tshwane.
It, however. chose to walk out in pursuit of a clearly political motive of unseating the local executive of government .
The city has been responding to most of the issues raised by Barekisi, members of the public and business chambers through various programmes aimed at addressing issues that include:
* Harassment by the metro police.
* Corruption in the issuing of trading permits.
* Sub-letting of stalls to foreigners.
* Demanding of bribes by council officials.
* General crime and vandalisation of stalls, and so on.
Among issues raised by the regional block of organisations is the 2012 Special Investigating Unit probe into certain matters in the city administration which we have repeatedly stated was undertaken with the full co-operation of the executive mayor, city manager and officials as required. The investigation was not initiated by the executive mayor and the findings of the investigation will be actionable by the SIU as it may deem fit.
It is therefore opportunistic and blatantly deceiving to the public for these organisations to allege the failure on the part of the City of Tshwane to either make those findings public, or to require action from the executive mayor.
It is unfortunate that some of these organisations have never made submissions to council on issues and projects targeted at their constituencies they claim to represent, yet they proclaim themselves as defenders of our freedom.
* Blessing Manale is the Tshwane mayoral spokesman.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Newspapers.
Pretoria News