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“The FF Plus has just launched an online-petition in Gauteng with the message ‘Leave my Municipality and stop the proposed combining of municipalities’,” Mr. Jaco Mulder, FF Plus MPL and party leader in Gauteng says.

The FF Plus had warned taxpayers and residents of the West Rand and Vaal Triangle earlier this year that the MEC for local government, on conjunction with the Municipal Demarcation Board in Gauteng is intending to join the local municipalities of Lesedi, Emfuleni, Midvaal and the Sedibeng District Municipality in the Vaal Triangle, as well as the municipalities on the West Rand, i.e. the West Rand District Municipality, Mogale City, Randfontein, Westonaria and Merafong City, respectively, into a category A municipality or Metro.

Consideration is even being given to adding a part of Roodepoort to the West Rand and joining Lesedi with the Ekurhuleni Metro on the East Rand, or alternatively joining Emfuleni and Midvaal local municipalities into a category B municipality and adding the Lesedi Municipality to the Ekurhuleni Metro.

The West Rand and Vaal Triangle are already suffering due to poor service delivery while misappropriation is at the order of the day. Where municipalities are joined, exorbitantly high salaries are being paid to officials, i.e. the city managers of respectively the Tshwane Metro and Johannesburg Metro, who earn between R 3,23 million and R 3,25 million per annum with the expectation of an annual increase of 20%. The Auditor General has already issued qualified audits and pointed out enormous outstanding debts in these areas.

The joining of the municipalities into one Metro Council is to the detriment of all communities within the district and must be stopped. The mere redistribution of tax resources in itself does not bring wealth and it is time for taxpayers to go into action.

The recent success of the FF Plus Gauteng E-toll petition, with more than 130 000 signatories, has shown that a clear resistance message of the public made an indispensable contribution to, together with other actions and court cases, stop the process.

The Demarcation Board’s legal processes have already begun and active public participation is now essential. According to section 26 of the Local Demarcation Board Act, communities should be properly informed about intended actions and public meetings and should be kept up to date of any developments.

Mulder called on the public to take control of municipal issues in their own areas and to support the online-petition at www.mymunisipaliteit.org.za or to phone the FF Plus’ support line on 0861700700.

The FF Plus is acting as a service delivery watchdog to serve your community.