Greetings to the newly elected EFF Joburg Region Chairperson
and EFF Party leader Musa Novela- congratulations son of the soil
Gallant fighters of EFF, the vanguard of the poor.
 
The Mayor Cllr Herman Mashaba
Speaker of Council, Cllr Vasco Da Gama
Members of the Mayoral Committee
Fellow Councilors amongst them Ex-MMC’s and Ex-Mayor,
City Manager, Dr Ndivho Lukhwareni
Distinguished guests
Members of the Media
And most importantly the Residents of the City of Johannesburg
Receive warm revolutionary greetings from the newly elected EFF
leadership of Joburg.
 
The only Diphethogo in this budget speech is that it was tabled by MMC
Ngobeni- (auti ya kasi) than MMC Daggada- (auti ya Born in Alexandra)
but the more things remain the same. There only change is that of the
firing and hiring in the Mayoral committee and not the real change in the
life of our people.
 
We just wondering who the next MMC to go? Let us
all wait for the press conference and media statement from the Mayor,
you will be convinced that I am sangoma but this term will not end
without another MMC being fired. Comrade Councilor Makhubo- ke
yona koppie dice kaMjiba. Badlala kaJozi
 
I would like to take this opportunity by passing a message from the EFF
in noting the sad news of the passing away of Fighter Siphiwe Mapuolo
from ward 114 who passed away on the 24th May 2018 at Zandspruit
Clinic after a short sickness.
 
Also the passing away of Fighter Mary
Mashinini son Jacob Ntate Mooka from ward 81 and Fighter Phumulani
Nkomo from Ward 51 in Zola. They passed on without dignity, black
people still don’t have their land back.
 
I am mentioning this because Fighter Simphiwe Mapuolos family can’t
even afford R1900.00 to buy him a piece of land in Lions Park cemetery
where they can bury him in dignity. A black person will forever be
humiliated until the end of time in South Africa hence the EFF call for the
expropriation of land without compensation for equal redistribution.
May the soul of our gallant fighters rest in revolutionary peace and we
will carry on the spear until we achieve economic freedom in our
lifetime.
 
Our engagement of this budget speech, MMC it is rich with lots of tariff
increment, uyakhuphula uyakhuphula awudlali ubuya ngokuzolala, you
just remind us of one Magician who has left us with the Gigabite Legacy.
He increased tax by 1% then he vanished back to Home Affairs.
 
We are going to reject these proposed increments of tariffs. This budget comes
at a backdrop of our leadership receiving a renewed mandate from 123
solid branches representing over 91% of the wards in Johannesburg.
Only the mighty EFF can host 5 successful Regional Peoples Assemblies
without a drop of blood or a loss of life to demonstrate our level of
maturity and unity in waging war against Capitalism. Our response to
your speech MMC is powered by an unflinching vote of confidence our
Chairperson and his collective received over the weekend in the RPA.
Amongst Resolutions adopted by our highly successful Regional People’s
Assembly is to be resolute in swaying the City to the left.
 
Swaying the City to the left means according to the resolutions of our
successful people assembly we must accelerate the insourcing of service
delivery, build capacity City, accelerate the expropriation of land and
abandoned buildings in the City, provide free water, electricity and
municipal services to families earning less than R10 000 per month,
building mining and beneficiation capacity in the City, establishing
industrial zones to boost job creation, constructing a City led student
town characterized by City sponsored student accommodation,
electrification of townships and informal settlements, reversing
apartheid spatial planning patterns by providing service stands in Kelvin,
Lombardy and other historically white apartheid ivory towers, providing
24 hour clinic services, building community centered libraries, a coherent
black economic development strategy which encapsulates formalizing
the food market and taxi industries, infrastructure development,
building safe economies and creating a clean City!
 
EFF notes the Job Seekers Database as proposed by the City and calls on
its mandate to include it being developed into an incubation that will
recruit and train resources that will be distributed to insourced road-
works, building, refuse removal, grass cutting, security, and cleaning
services.
 
EFF notes the electrification and provision of water to informal
settlements and call on the city to provide a concrete plan that commits
this administration to electrify and provide water to all homes by 2021.
To this end, EFF calls on the City to accelerate the portioning of the
expropriated land in Kelvin. It has been over 18 months since this Council
passed the EFF sponsored motion of expropriating that land.
 
Our patience is running dry on this issue, if no progress is made on this
matter, we might move in and do your job of providing settlement to our
people. Speaker, the apportioning of Kelvin’s 3 Million square meter into
600 square meter serviced stand, can house 5000 families.
 
We give the City a month to provide us with a project plan on the Kelvin Land. How
are you going to ensure that the 152 000 people on the housing waiting
list are given houses when you fail to expropriate land?
EFF notes the City’s view on the expropriation of abandoned buildings,
and to this end call on the City to mandate JoshCo to refurbish the
buildings and convert them to affordable housing and student
accommodation.
 
We believe that a better-managed JoshCo with focused
leadership, headed by a CEO who doesn’t behave as if he’s a law unto
himself can drive the rejuvenation of Joburg. Speaker, the MMC has
indicated that R120 million has been budgeted for the 2018/2019
financial year to provide 200 serviced sites onto which beneficiaries can
be settled with full ownership.
 
The people of ward 20 in Naledi have identified land in Protea Glen Ext 16 Ward 135 and what was the Citys
response to poor people? It responded by unleashing JMPD with Teargas
and rubber bullets, black on black violence, we are not giving our people
hope. It can’t be that we have almost 190 informal settlements in Jozi-
Mjiba Johannesburg. MMC Meshack Van Wyk, my predikant, there is no
time for settling into your new job but you need to hit the ground
running.
 
I don’t know why the Mayor continues to deploy short people
into this office of housing, clearly Councilor Dan Bovu, your boots are too
big to filled.
Speaker, the EFF vehemently, unreservedly, unapologetically and
ferociously rejects the proposed increases in water, electricity,
sewerage, sanitation and refuse removal increases. If the City wants to
close the gap of withheld funding by the national government, the focus
should be on an accentuated focus into tracking businesses that evade
paying for services.
 
Recently the Mayor announced the recouping of millions from ABSA,
that was brilliant work done and the City must focus on that. Currently
as things stand the poor are funding the rich and businesses.
 
We call on the creation of a non-bribe taking rates evasion busting unit tasked with
visiting every business premise in Joburg including Luthuli House and
recoup monies robbed from the poor.
 
Speaker, the City must look into self-funding initiatives. Amongst the
initiatives we propose are;
· The recapture of Lenseria Airport from the current franchised
arrangement. The Airport can boost the city’s revenue and bring
vibrancy to the economy.
· Recapture ICT infrastructure, which includes fibre distribution and
rent to business.
· Recapture and resuscitate Egoli Gas to compete with electricity
generation.
· Establish the Joburg Mining Company to take over abandoned
mines and spearhead the mineral beneficiation program.
Speaker, in order for the City to mitigate refuse removal costs it must
expropriate the two dumping sites PikItUp is currently renting from
White Monopoly Capital. What kind of rubbish is this where the City
rents land from private business?
 
Speaker, part of the R96 Million budgeted for City Theatre should be
spent on creating partnerships with schools to stimulate the arts in Black
Township. Furthermore, part of the R3.2 Billion allocated to Transport
should be used to subsidize and formalize the taxi industry.
 
In conclusion Speaker, we note Diphethogo in principle and as a cause.
We however call on it to be contextualized against the immediate need
to improve our people’s lives. This administration is approaching two
years in office and growing too slow in changing lives. The Mayor must
be courageous and confront the sabotage waged by inherited bureaucracy.
 
I thank you.