POLITICAL NEWS - The Ratings Afrika’s recent report shows that the City of Cape Town remains South Africa’s only metropolitan municipality to be in financial good standing. Aside from Cape Town, national government would need to spend over R50-billion to cover the cash deficits across municipalities.
This effectively means that most local governments – largely run by the ANC – spend far more than the funds they receive. These municipalities are, regrettably, consistently operating in debt at the expense of ratepayers.
DA-led municipalities in the Western Cape continue to lead from the front by stepping up, innovating, and providing support to residents in the face of an ongoing pandemic. Our municipalities are amongst the most capacitated and equipped to carry out Covid-19 vaccines, but even beyond the pandemic, their leadership works tirelessly to, amongst others:
- Secure stable energy supplies through the support of the province’s Municipal Energy Resilience Programme;
- Create jobs, by for example, making the most of our agricultural sector's growth which employed 17 000 more people last year;
- Promote dignity through leading, nationwide, in all consumer unit metrics relating to receiving free basic water, electricity, sewerage and sanitation, and solid waste management services; and
- Foster crime prevention through the Western Cape Safety Programme, which supplements SAPS like no other province has done before.
Where we govern, clean governance and proper service delivery is enacted upon. Apart from the successes seen in the Western Cape, the Midvaal municipality in Gauteng achieved a rating of 70% from Ratings Afrika.
The City of Tshwane, recently brought under DA administration, also managed to improve its consumer debt collection from 75% to 88%. It is progress such as this which reinforces the reputation of good governance, despite the context of a worsening national fiscus.
On the contrary, the consequences of the ANC’s leadership are increasingly apparent. For example, Beaufort West – which is an ANC-run municipality – is the worst performing administration in the province with a rating of just 18%.
Residents will also remember that this is the very same municipality which finds itself R29.1 million in arrears with Eskom. As the DA, we aim to turn this ship around at today’s by-election.
It is critical that municipalities are restored to their intended functioning capacity. They are at the forefront of service delivery and without proper services, residents suffer.
We seek to bring an end to poor service delivery this year by gaining the trust of residents and earning their mandate at the ballot box this year, to improve local government in all corners of the Western Cape.
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