Bad faith as ANC goes all out to discredit MyCiTi initiative
THE LETTER headed “Acrimonious MyCiTi battle” (Cape Argus, March 13) by Colin Arendse refers.
In the past few months the ANC has continuously distorted the facts about Phase 2 of the MyCiTi service, and in some instances even resorted to outright lies in furthering its own political interests.
Colin Arendse’s letter confirms what we already know: that the ANC will try every trick in the book to jeopardise Phase 2 and that it is doing this because the ANC finds itself in a predicament.
The ANC doesn’t have anything to offer voters in next year’s local government elections, and they are using this project in the vain hope that it will give them some momentum.
In doing so, they have no regard for those 35 communities from the metro south-east which stand to benefit from the MyCiTi service and which have, through our interaction with ward councillors and ward committees, indicated their support for the roll-out of this project.
The ANC hates the fact that the MyCiTi service is popular wherever it is rolled out: from Dunoon to Atlantis, Imizamo Yethu and Hangberg to Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha.
So it will do everything in its power to discredit and undermine the MyCiTi service, as well as any future MyCiTi projects, so as to undermine this administration’s most visible track record of service delivery to the residents of Cape Town.
During the process of arranging the oversight visit, the NCOP asked to be briefed on Phase 2 of the MyCiTi project.
Given the scale of this project and the massive benefit to about 1.4 million residents, this request was not surprising.
We arranged with the NCOP that we would drive them along the proposed route from Khayelitsha to Wynberg and brief them on aspects of the project along the way.
Shortly before departing Khayelitsha, I was informed that the members no longer wanted that briefing but instead wanted to travel directly to Plumstead.
On the way to Wynberg, I stopped the convoy of vehicles at Nolungile Station in Khayelitsha where I attempted to brief the NCOP members on the massive MyCiTi station proposed for the area and how it would integrate with the Nolungile Metrorail station.
The NCOP members did not even bother to get out of their vehicle.
I stand by my observation that the NCOP has acted in bad faith. Good faith requires, at the very least, sincere and honest intentions.
At no stage in the process of making the arrangements for the briefing on the MyCiTi project did the NCOP indicate that they intended calling a public meeting in Plumstead.
If the NCOP was genuinely pursuing oversight and seeking to involve citizens in parliamentary processes, as they claim, why did they withhold these details from us?
Clearly this was not the NCOP conducting public engagement or oversight, and I have no intention of participating in the ANC’s attempt to engineer conflict. The ANC is abusing residents for its own political purposes and must not expect me to be party to that.
I have repeatedly indicated that I am willing to meet those residents living in city-owned suburban houses in the South Road reserve whose leases have been terminated to implement the planned road. I will honour this undertaking, but in the appropriate forum.
All the tenants of these city-owned houses signed leases agreeing that the city could terminate those leases when we needed to build the road.
Not even a year ago, the chairperson of the South Road Residents’ Association signed a lease with a paragraph – underlined and in bold – indicating that he had read and understood that “this property has been acquired to be demolished for road construction/widening purposes and that notice will be served on the lessee, in terms of this agreement, to terminate the lease and vacate the property”.
I indicated my willingness to appear before the Western Cape Provincial Legislature’s standing committee for transport and public works on March 10, but this meeting was postponed at their insistence. BRETT HERRON Mayoral Committee Member Transport for Cape Town