Makhura slams defiant Mashaba, his administration
GAUTENG Premier David Makhura has slammed Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba and his administration, accusing them of deliberately snubbing the provincial administration on issues of co-operative governance.
Makhura was speaking in Boksburg yesterday where the ANC was holding a local government summit.
The summit was intended to look at the state of governance and socioeconomic challenges of municipalities in the province.
Makhura said his new MECs had been holding meetings with municipalities in a bid to assist them in boosting service delivery initiatives, but some municipalities had refused to co-operate or account, led by Joburg.
He added that while the DA-led Tshwane worked well with the provincial government, Mashaba’s administration was snubbing his MECs, which he said he would fight.
“We as the government here have a mandate on co-operative governance and we are going to ensure the co-operation as mandated by the Constitution. Joburg does not have a choice. It has a duty to co-operate,” Makhura said.
He also blasted some of the ANC-led municipalities for what he described as tarnishing the ANC through bad conduct.
Makhura said the actions by these rogue municipalities could see the governing party losing power if they were not punished.
Makhura also said that the increasing population size in the province made it difficult for poor municipalities to meet their constitutional obligations on services.
“We are now 15.7 million people in the province. There is no space in Gauteng where the number of people is not growing, either two or three times what we were in 1994,” he said.
Makhura highlighted that the Sedibeng and the West Rand district municipalities were ravaged by poor delivery due to their deteriorating economic base.
“In the two districts, without provincial intervention, they will not pull forward on their own. We must stimulate the economy of these districts because this is where the highest number of poor people live in Gauteng,” he said.
All Gauteng’s six local municipalities were located in the two districts.
Makhura said the ANC would, however, fail to turn around the municipalities and deliver services if the party remained engulfed in factional battles at a leadership level.
“If we are divided, we will divide South Africa and we are going to be sidetracked from the challenges faced by our people,” he said.