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The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng notes the announcement by the Gauteng COGTA MEC, Lebogang Maile that he has placed the City of Tshwane under administration in terms of Section 139 (1) of the Constitution.

The MEC made this announcement today during a press conference without notifying the Tshwane City Manager who is currently in charge of the metro.

The actions of the MEC indicates that the ANC is trying to use its political muscle to get hold of the City’s fiscus as we move towards the 2021 Local Government Elections.

However, this move by the MEC is both procedurally and constitutionally wrong.

There was no notice served detailing the reasons why Tshwane should be placed under administration. The City was not given time to respond as such a response was supposed to be tabled in Council.

MEC Maile made serious allegations without evidence such as the City not being able to deliver on its core mandate as well as with regards to the financial wellbeing of the city.

MEC Maile is desperate to try and prevent any form of opposition governance in this province.

Surprisingly, the MEC is jumping on Tshwane issues that the Council has powers to resolve instead of  dealing with the ANC-led failing municipalities such as Rand West, Emfuleni and Merafong Local Municipalities.

The DA is exploring legal actions on this matter and other mechanisms to ensure that Maile is held personally accountable for his outrageous abuse of power.

Under the DA-led government of Tshwane the following successes were achieved:

• Started investigations into the corrupt purchase of the Strydfontein, Klipfontein and Roodepoort farms while the ANC was administrating the municipality;
• Extended access to better healthcare by taking mobile clinics to taxi ranks;
• Corrected an inherited R2 billion deficit and shown a surplus at the end of the first financial year in office in 2017;
• Recruited more than 400 jobseekers during phase 4 of the city’s EPWP recruitment process which aims to create a further 110 000 jobs for residents; and
• Extended clinic hours at 24 facilities.

Issued by The DA