Pretoria - Executive Mayor Solly Msimanga and Premier David Makhura are at loggerheads regarding service delivery in Tshwane.
During the march against e-tolls on Friday, Makhura publicly accused Msimanga of incompetence and said evidence of this was poor delivery of services in the municipality.
But Msimanga brushed aside the comments as mere politicking and motivated by “election time”. He is the DA’s candidate for Gauteng premier and will go head-to-head with Makhura, also provincial ANC chairperson, in next year's general election.
At the march at the Union Buildings, Makhura said: “I am very disappointed here in this capital city. Two years ago when there was the new administration, I am one of those people who said ‘give the man a chance’. But as we stand now the City is the most regressed in service delivery,” Makhura said.
He further blamed Msimanga of running what he termed “the worst performing metro in Gauteng province”.
“How do you take a man who cannot run a metro and think he can run such a complex province called Gauteng?”
Makhura castigated Msimanga for failure to provide clean water in Hammanskraal, questioning how he could provide clean water in the whole of the province.
Msimanga is the DA’s premier candidate for the 2019 elections and his campaign for votes has been in full swing for months.
But Makhura said: “He cannot fix a single thing in Mamelodi, but he runs to Sebokeng to promise the people there that he can address their problems. Shame on him.”
He accused Msimanga of failing to give answers to families of the five Soshanguve children who were killed by the faulty high-mast lighting that crashed on them. “He can’t do something for them. Shame on him. He has never said to me when we meet ‘let’s go and make a case for Gauteng to the president about e-tolls’, but he comes and say he can do something. Shame on him,” Makhura said.
But Msimanga hit back, saying that Makhura’s remarks were informed by a survey conducted when the City was under the ANC-led administration.
“The survey was conducted during 2015/16 and he is basing this thing on a report started before our term of office,” Msimanga said.
It was untrue that the City was struggling in terms of rolling out better services to the people, Msimanga said. “We inherited the municipality that was technically bankrupt, where nepotism was rife."
Under the DA-led administration, Msimanga said, a lot had been done to turn around the municipality’s fortunes. He accused Makhura of using the report as “a side issue instead of responding to the issue of e-tolls”.
Regarding accusations that he was criss-crossing the province while residents in the capital were struggling with accessing basic services, he said: “That is very funny. Before we came to power they never did anything to solve the Hammanskraal water problem.”
He said Makhura should rather apportion blame to those who were responsible for the missing millions in the City and the 10000 projects that were left hanging by the previous ANC administration. “If he wants to talk about service delivery, he must go to Sebokeng, Randfontein and all the municipalities under ANC control,” Msimanga said.