Speech by the Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Alderman
Patricia de Lille, at the full Council meeting on 25 July
2012
Mr. Speaker,
Good morning, goeiedag, molweni.
Here, in this Cape of Storms, this city has been hit by the harshest of
conditions.
At times, day after day, this weather-assault seemed relentless.
Our systems and the resolve of a number of communities have all been
tested to the limit.
These systems have by in large endured the storm.
These storms have been the wind and the rain that have destroyed a
number of housing structures and disrupted a number of communities
throughout the city.
We deeply sympathise with those citizens of the city that have been worst
affected and are doing everything possible to mitigate the worst effects of
the winter weather.
These are tragedies that we regret and that, by virtue of global warming,
our climate, and our weather conditions, we have little control over.
Thankfully, we also have in place excellent Disaster Risk Management
Services to deal with these weather extremes when they threaten our
people.
Indeed, our Disaster Risk Management Services are recognised by the
World Bank, the United Nations and others, as national and continental
leaders in terms of preventing and reacting to emergencies.
To those brave men and women who have risked their own lives to help
others in need, on behalf of the Council and the City of Cape Town, I say:
thank you, baie dankie, enkosi.
But, Mr Speaker, the storms that we face are not always as a result of the
weather.
Sometimes, they are the result of legitimate scrutiny and political
imperatives that combine to create a tempest of intrigue.
Mr Speaker, a week ago, we revealed our provisional financial results for
the previous financial year.
These results showed that our capital expenditure was R4,17 billion,
which amounts to 91,4% of the total capital budget that was R4,56
billion.
Furthermore, R242 million, comprising a further 5,3% of that budget has
been committed and will be completed in the next few months.
The remaining 3,7% resulting from contracts that ended up costing lower
than expected will go towards savings.
This is a tremendous achievement, not just for local government, but for
government as a whole and for the country.
Time and again, surveys and studies have shown that South Africa has
under-invested in infrastructure and capital spending over the past two
decades.
This opinion finds agreement across the private sector and to the longterm public sector thinking of the country in the National Development
Plan.
It has been identified by President Jacob Zuma and was a major theme in
his last State of the Nation Address.
Cape Town is doing its part.
We are investing in the capital projects that build roads; lay the networks
for reliable supplies of water and electricity; build community facilities;
install bulk infrastructure; and much else besides.
These are the projects that build the city of the future and create
opportunity for all, especially following the strategy of infrastructure-led
growth.
But the rainmakers in the ANC have to try and create a storm: a storm in
a teacup that is made all the worse by their thorough misunderstanding of
government processes.
That is how they see opposition.
So the ANC claim that we are not measuring our expenditure against the
right budget.
They claim that the City is using a different budget and that because of
this, somehow, the City is misrepresenting its finances to the people of
Cape Town.
We have measured our expenditure against the final, approved budget –
the Adjustment Budget – approved in January, in line with the regulations
of the Municipal Financial Management Act (MFMA).
The MFMA is legislation that was passed by Parliament with an ANC
majority.
I challenge the ANC today to show us the clause in the MFMA that says
that a municipality cannot adjust its budget.
Indeed, I note that the MFMA defines an approved budget as one that, I
quote ‘has been approved by a Municipal Council…and includes such an
annual budget as revised by an adjustments budget.’ End quote.
We have measured against the final approved budget, in line with
regulations from the National Treasury.
The Treasury is a department within an ANC National Government.
Let me remind this Council that it is also the practice of the ANC national
government, and ANC-run municipalities, to measure spending figures
against the latest, revised budget.
So if the ANC in this Council rejects our capital spend, then they also
reject the laws and practices of this country.
In which case, I hope that these rainmakers find themselves redeployed
by more senior comrades to make storms elsewhere.
The fact is, the City of Cape Town remains a performance leader in terms
of municipal governance.
Our financial practices and procedures have consistently resulted in
unqualified audits – a status which most ANC-run municipalities have
failed to achieve if we consider the recent report of the Auditor-General
following up on ‘Operation Clean Audit.’
Mr Speaker, the City of Cape Town remains committed to the very best
government practices.
That is why the Mayco and I have started going back to communities to
present the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) that this Council passed
this year. We have already had a report back session with the community
of Mitchells Plain and we will continue these engagements from Atlantis to
Khayelitsha.
We are reporting back on our five-year plan, giving a strategic policy
overview of our delivery agenda, it was informed by a public participation
process that reached over one million people.
And that engagement with communities is one that we will always
maintain, to ensure that we continue to govern according to the mandate
of the people of Cape Town.
We must do everything to ensure that our mandate remains as inclusive
as possible and that it incorporates as many people in our communities as
we can.
This spirit must infuse everything we do, including addressing major
criminal and social problems, which are inter-related.
In that regard, I believe that all partners should be proactive in tackling
the scourge of drugs and gangsterism in some of our communities.
This includes, in the short-term, addressing direct criminal problems with
partners in the South African Police Service (SAPS).
It also includes a long-term approach in revitalising these communities
through City services.
We all have a role to play.
That is why I recently met with the new National Police Commissioner,
General Riah Phiyega, and we agreed that both the SAPS and the City,
and indeed all of us, must work to address this problem.
It is truly a ‘Whole of Society’ approach.
Indeed, from the City-side, we have launched the ‘Don’t Start, Be Smart,’
Campaign, which is taking the lessons of leading a positive lifestyle
directly to our youth.
Mr Speaker, at the next Council meeting, for Council’s record, we will
bring notification of the Service Delivery and Budget Implementation
Plans (SDBIPs), which give life to the five pillars of the Opportunity City;
the Safe City; the Caring City; the Inclusive City; and the Well-run City.
They will be the tools that ensure that the organisation is working to
change this city by providing opportunity and thus working to achieve
redress and reconciliation.
Indeed, I believe that reconciliation is another area where the City of
Cape Town is taking the lead to bring healing to people who were
historically divided.
One of the key interventions we have made is to change the spaces in
which people live by considering renaming old spaces where necessary
and, more importantly, giving names to new places in the city.
In that regard, our street naming and renaming process has been, I
would argue, the most sensitively handled in the country.
It has been one of constant participation, consultation and deliberation.
All voices will be heard and views considered.
With the names that the committee has suggested be put forward, we will
strike a balance between recognising our past, acknowledging our shared
heritage, and shaping a new future together.
It is this spirit of engagement that speaks to the very heart of the
Inclusive City.
But inclusion must go beyond the symbolic.
As meaningful as gestures are, they can never be the whole story.
We must not rest until this whole city is united, socially as well as
physically.
It is for this reason that, though I recognise the right of Golden Arrow to
take legal action, I am disappointed at Golden Arrow’s impending legal
action questioning the terms we agreed to with various partners,
including them, regarding the roll-out of the Integrated Rapid Transport
(IRT) system.
This kind of action is arguably anti-competitive given an entrenched
transport monopoly that has lasted for decades in this city.
This system, with its multiple modes of transport, its phases and its multiyear project-plans, has ambitions that reach well into our city’s future.
Indeed, its success will be the building block of our city’s resilience and
sustainability for decades.
Because the stakes are so high, we will use every resource to fight for
what this city needs in order to deliver a sense of inclusion and belonging
to all who live in it.
That is the responsibility we have to the people who live in this city at
present and those who will live here in the future.
But sustainability must also transform our energy usage in this city, which
is the reason we have requested proposals from service providers for a
roll-out of solar water heaters.
The use of solar water heaters across Cape Town, which was an election
commitment, is part of our commitment to reducing electricity
consumption; supporting local economic development; and reducing the
city’s carbon footprint.
Indeed, it is a combined measure to achieve a balance of environmental
and economic sustainability for the city as whole through a projected
business-driven, City-supported roll-out of solar water heaters.
Because, in conclusion, the storms we face are indeed sometimes of our
own making, like some of the effects of climate change and historic
patterns of energy usage.
The real challenge comes in preparing for the storms that are the
unintended results of our past behaviours and preventing unnecessary
storms from developing.
The wisdom for us all is knowing who the rainmakers are.
Thank you.