Cape Town - The ANC is to lobby the minister of local government to initiate a special investigation into what it considers gross maladministration and the skewed spending of funds by the City of Cape Town.
The council adopted a revised budget for the 2018/2019 financial year at its first meeting for the year this week, allocating more funds towards safety and security, keeping communities clean and for the maintenance of parks and recreational amenities.
One of the major priorities Mayor Dan Plato highlighted was an additional R115million towards clean-up operations, including in informal settlements.
The ANC, rejected the revised budget, saying it perpetuated the social inequalities in the city.
“We will call on the minister of co-operative governance, Dr Zweli Mkhize, to investigate the political interference by the DA in the running of the city. Residents on the Cape Flats continue to suffer because service delivery is so poor there. The DA-run council is failing to deliver sanitation and basic services to areas of the poor,” ANC provincial secretary, Faiez Jacobs said.
Plato said the City of Cape Town was putting its budget to “good use” and had already spent R300m on solid waste removal - but because of illegal dumping, its efforts were not as effective as they could have been.
“For example, we are allocating an additional R115m towards cleaning up our communities, and of this amount R56 million will go towards additional cleaning of informal settlements. We need our communities to report the criminals who are making their communities dirty, unsafe, and unsightly,” he said.
Plato warned against illegal dumping, saying perpetrators would be fined between R5000 and R15000 - and if they were doing it from a vehicle, the vehicle would be impounded. Plato said it was well established how “grime” could lead to crime, which is why a big focus was being put on cleaning up communities.
“But to complement this, we must deal with the crime, too... that is why I have allocated an additional R165m to our law enforcement services in this year’s adjustments budget,” he added. Human settlements would receive more funds to secure title deeds.
But the leader of the opposition in the council, the ANC’s Xolani Sotashe, said poor people urgently needed housing.
“About R175m was taken back to National Treasury because the council failed to spend it on services, while the Cape Flats streets have become war zones and people need houses. This adjusted budget will not meet the needs of the poor,” Sotashe added.