The escalating lack of fiscal discipline, the collapse of critical service delivery and the weakening of administrative capacity in the Tshwane Metro should not be tolerated.
The Metro’s decline is clearly reflected in reports tabled to the Council on Thursday.
The Metro’s current funding model is built on sand. It fails in the three fundamental principles of sustainable municipal governance:
- Debt collection is not optimal due to a growing culture of non-payment and inadequate credit control measures.
- Water and electricity wastage is not curbed. Technical and non-technical electricity losses exceed 24%, while water losses currently stand at 32%. These losses represent hundreds of millions of rands going to waste.
- Infrastructure repairs and service delivery exist only on paper, with numerous projects showing little progress or having come to a complete standstill.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) is tired of a city administration that merely “takes note” instead of accepting accountability. “Taking note” does not keep the lights on, fix burst pipes or create jobs. It is an excuse for inefficiency.
While the Metro boasts about its debt-relief schemes and amnesty programmes, the actual participation in these initiatives reveals how little faith residents have in them.
Only 102 households and three businesses enrolled in the scheme. These numbers are shockingly low and demonstrate that the Metro’s extensive debt crisis cannot be resolved with political rhetoric.
The Freedom Front Plus demands:
- Immediate steps against underperformance, instead of more reports and committees.
- Actual accountability for revenue losses due to electricity and water theft, administrative errors and meter tampering.
- A management culture that prioritises performance over excuses and treats residents like clients, not nuisances.
Pretoria is South Africa’s capital. It is not an experimental playground for political coalitions that are not truly committed to service delivery.
The Freedom Front Plus will continue to be the voice of communities, and demands that every cent paid by taxpayers should be used to residents’ advantage.
