SPEECH BY HELEN ZILLE
MAYOR OF CAPE TOWN
TABLING OF THE DRAFT BUDGET 2009/2010
COUNCIL CHAMBER – 10H00 MONDAY 30 MARCH 2009
Speaker, Councillors, City Manager, officials, members of the media and the public.
Welcome to this meeting of full council, which includes the tabling of our draft budget for the
2009/2010 financial year.
I would like to extend a special word of welcome to our new councillors following last
week’s round of by-elections and new appointments.
Before we turn to the budget, IDP and other items on the agenda, I will make a few general
comments.
Firstly, I ask this council to acknowledge the recent, tragic deaths of two small children,
Unabantu Mali and Somila Tshangatsha, after they were allegedly turned away from health
facilities.
The facilities involved in the case of Unabantu’s death are the Gugulethu Community Health
Centre and KTC Maternity Obstetrics Unit, which are Provincial facilities, and the Nyanga
Clinic, which has separate Provincial- and City-run sections. The death of Somila has been
linked to the Zibonele Clinic, which is run by a UCT-based NGO.
But the point is NOT to attribute blame or find scapegoats. We have to work collectively to
ensure that these things do not happen.
Our Executive Director for Health, Dr Ivan Bromfield, has met the independent team
appointed by the Provincial Government to investigate the matter. He will ensure that staff in
the City of Cape Town section of the Nyanga Clinic co-operate in every way and assist with
the enquiry.
The City has a policy that no patient may be turned away at its clinics despite the almost
inhuman work load our staff face there.
I believe the same applies to Provincial clinics.
I hope that the external investigation by Province will help pinpoint the facts of this matter
and if any City employees are found to have been in breach of this policy, we will take
appropriate action, in line with the circumstances involved.
We must recommit ourselves as a council to making sure that the state organs under our
watch have the capacity and the skills they need to function properly.
Many of our departments are stretched to the limit, and I would like to acknowledge the
members of staff who go beyond the call of duty to keep them functioning.
In particular, I would like to congratulate our fire-fighters, who had to deal with 4200 callouts this year, over 1000 more than last year. They have worked under very difficult
conditions, and against what appear to be some deliberate efforts to start fires. We have now
launched our external forensic investigation into these cases, and we are also continuing our
work to build capacity in our fire department.
Of course, building capacity depends on ensuring that we have a sufficient revenue base to
provide these functions and that we employ the right people in the right positions.
These precepts sound simple but they are difficult to achieve in situations where it is a
challenge to retain South Africa’s skills and revenue base, and where the demand for
increased free services of quality is escalating.
We have to manage this tension as well as we can, and make sure that every cent is well
spent.
The draft budget and revised Integrated Development Plan that we table today are designed
with this purpose in mind.
Our Mayoral Committee Member for Finance, Economic and Social Development and
Tourism, Alderman Ian Neilson, will provide all of the essential details of the draft budget
shortly.
So I will focus on putting its core objectives into perspective.
Firstly, the draft we table today is intended to continue the progress we have made over the
past three years in establishing a solid platform of infrastructure and services capable of
supporting and encouraging economic growth, development and job creation in Cape Town.
This is clearly stated in our IDP goal of ‘infrastructure-led economic growth’.
It is a goal which has remained constant through the document’s various annual revisions,
including the one before council today.
In terms of our constitutional mandates as a local government, promoting economic growth
and job creation in Cape Town involves increasing our capacity to deliver basic services like
water and electricity reticulation, wastewater treatment, waste removal, roads, municipal
public transport, and sites and services for housing.
It has also meant building our administrative capacity and our ability to enforce planning
laws, by-laws and traffic regulations.
Much of what we have done so far has been remedial work.
We have been trying to address weaknesses within our organisation, and infrastructure
backlogs on the ground.
Both problems are the result of years of neglect.
The neglect of municipal services and capacity has been particularly damaging because it has
happened at a time of rapid urbanisation, and in the context of a skills exodus from the public
sector and South Africa generally.
Taken together, these factors are a recipe for disaster in any city, even without a global
recession.
For the past three years we have therefore had a strong internal focus, filling 3000 critical
vacancies and getting our organisational structure in order.
This has brought improved turn-around times in many of the functions we perform.
For example in 2005, it took an average of 15 weeks to finalise tenders for service delivery
contracts.
We have reduced this to 5 weeks, ensuring we can get projects started quickly.
While we were improving administrative efficiency, we also got to work on upgrading and
building essential infrastructure, especially for water and sanitation.
And we increased our focus on maintenance programmes, especially for roads, which are
badly in need of attention.
As a result, the past three years have seen a series of massive improvements in infrastructure
and service delivery in Cape Town.
We have put our money where our mouth is.
Compare what this Multi-Party Government has done during its three years in office to the
City’s performance three years prior to that.
Between 2002 and 2006 the City of Cape Town invested a total of R3 billion in basic
infrastructure, and spent around R1.7 billion on maintenance.
During the past three years, we tripled capital investments to nearly R9 billion, and doubled
spending on maintenance to R3.3 billion.
As Alderman Neilson will spell out in detail, the draft budget we table today continues this
programme as we enter the fourth year of our term in office.
The ANC alliance has recently had a lot to say about the state of services in poorer
communities in Cape Town.
They are of course, trying to fight the upcoming provincial and national government elections
on the basis of local government issues. I would like to do the same because then when
people make the comparison countrywide, we should get a two-thirds majority.
I have just come from the Matchabeng municipality in Free State where sewerage literally
runs down the street. A tarred road in the middle of a suburb is now an open stinking sewer
with raw sewerage running like a river.
I had heard about it but I had to see it to believe it.
This is because of the jobs for pals policy of the ANC -- the cadre deployment policy that has
led to disaster everywhere, from local government to the National Prosecuting Authority.
As President Kgalema Motlanthe himself conceded -- every project under the ANC
government is designed to make someone rich, rather than deliver services -- and that is the
key problem with the ANC.
It is also the key reason for the failed state. And if you want to see examples of the failed
state, you don’t have to make the trip to Zimbabwe, nor even to Musina on South Africa’s
side of the border (where I stood in a pothole that is deeper than I am tall).
You just have to travel around ANC municipalities in ANC provinces to see how and why we
end up in disaster.
Cape Town, under the multi-party government, represents the direct alternative to this.
Our increased investments in urban infrastructure and services have been of particular benefit
to the poor.
In fact, today’s budget is unquestionably pro-poor, in other words, it is geared towards
poverty alleviation.
Firstly, its goal of economic growth and job creation is the best known way to address poverty
and under-development.
Our investments are specifically designed to attract skills and capital to Cape Town for
precisely this purpose.
Secondly, many of our investments in infrastructure are to help poor people grasp the new
opportunities that economic growth brings.
This is in line with the principle of state support for socio-economic rights in South Africa’s
Constitution.
This principle requires government to do everything in its power to ensure that its citizens
have the opportunity to become full and equal participants in our democracy and economy.
Our provision of subsidised and GAP housing has been a good example of how we aim to
meet this principle.
Our housing programme aims to give a growing number of residents security of tenure, an
official home address, and to liberate them from the difficulties of living in unserviced shack
settlements.
During its time in office, the ANC delivered a total of 10 000 housing opportunities.
So far, in the same period of time, we have doubled this to 20 000.
In the draft budget we table today, we are continuing this positive trend, with R663 million
allocated for housing, up from approximately R550 million in the 2008/2009 financial year,
and R450 million the year before. This includes funds for upgrades to informal settlements,
establishment of new settlements, and upgrades to 43 500 rental units and 11 000 hostel units.
Today’s council agenda also contains a provision to transfer 5 additional well located portions
of housing land in the eastern metro region to Nedbank and Standard Bank for the
development of GAP housing.
In terms of our arrangement with the banks, at least 50% of the units to be developed in these
areas must be targeted at households with a monthly household income of under R10 000 per
month, and the beneficiaries must be sourced from the City’s housing waiting list.
These pieces of land were previously transferred to ABSA for GAP housing (in May 2008),
but after nearly a year it handed them back to the City because it decided it would not be
profitable enough.
ABSA told us that it wanted a profit margin of at least 20% on the project, and that this was
not achievable. That is enough commentary. Need I say any more? I hope Ms Ramos has
taken note.
Standard Bank and Nedbank are already well on their way with projects on erven transferred
to them last year, and jumped at the opportunity to take these land parcels too.
This is profoundly ironic given that ABSA is this City’s banker.
I would like to thank Nedbank and Standard Bank for their commitment to supporting Cape
Town’s poor residents, and joining us in our effort to drive development in Cape Town.
In addition to housing, our provision of free basic services, including water, sanitation,
electricity and waste removal, is also designed to help poor residents access economic
opportunities by improving their living conditions.
In 2005/2006, before we came to office, Cape Town allocated an annual amount of R450
million for free basic services, with no provision for free electricity.
For the past three years we increased this to an average of over R600 million a year, and in
the budget we table today, we are proposing R810 million for free basic services, nearly twice
what the ANC used to offer.
This includes R160 million for free electricity.
In fact, we are even working to subsidise the electrification of informal settlements in Eskom
supply areas, where the parastatal has refused to do so. Every day I find these ironies. The
ANC that claims it is pro-poor, is actually pro-poverty. It is this multi-party government that
picks up functions outside its constitutional competencies to ensure that the poor get the
services they deserve, but we can only do this because more and more people are paying their
rates and service charges. While this is a basic duty of every responsible citizen, I would
nevertheless like to thank all those citizens who give far more than they take and make it
possible for us to extend basic decent services
We have also found a unique solution to the combined challenge of debt management and
water shortages with our new Water Management Devices.
These are not pre-paid meters -- they give you a significant supply of free basic water and
ensure you pick up leaks immediately so that you don’t have to pay for water you don’t use.
The ANC knows the truth, but this is an inconvenient truth to them, so they continue to tell
convenient untruths to try and drum up support in this election campaign.
It is a testament to the ANC’s hypocrisy that it has been trying to win votes in Cape Town by
falsely claiming we are installing pre-paid water meters, while its government in
Johannesburg has been in court trying to get permission to put in pre-paid meters in Soweto.
On Friday the court suspended the City of Johannesburg’s project for two years, pending
changes to its by-law. But it looks like the ANC is ready to press ahead with it in spite of the
delay.
Let me say this one more time. We are implementing Water Management Devices on a
voluntary basis, to help people avoid running up huge bills through leaks on their properties,
and to help save water.
They do not require pre-payment to deliver a free basic 6000 litres of water per month to
households, plus a further 4000 litres to households registered on our indigency database.
These devices can also be set to deliver more if owners consent to paying a certain small
amount at the end of each month. For just R20 you get another 6,000 litres over and above
the 6,000 free litres. Show me a City anywhere with such a generous and affordable service
regime.
With these devices, we can get rid of the ‘trickle system’ and put households on full flow of
350 free litres a day. Of course, it is not really free. Someone is paying for it. It is being
subsidised by other ratepayers.
But we believe this is right.
We believe in subsidising free basic services and we will continue to do so.
We can also be sure that the ANC will continue telling lies about it, because the failed to do
any of this adequately when they were in power.
National legislation requires a minimum of 25 litres per person per day, while the court ruling
in Johannesburg on Friday recommended 42 litres per person per day.
Our system guarantees, for a family of 8 members, 44 free litres per day, which exceeds all of
these requirements.
Where over 8 people live in a household, we increase the amount of free water accordingly.
So far we have installed 30 000 of these devices free of charge, after consultation with
owners, and fixed leaks free of charge in many of the homes where they have been installed.
This has already resulted in a monthly saving of 156 000 000 litres of water worth R519 000.
Where indigent residents have had one installed, we have written off their debts after 6
months.
We have also introduced an SMS complaints service if people have problems with their water
management devices.
It is profoundly disappointing that some Cape Town politicians are willing to sabotage such a
positive initiative, and to put council officials in danger, in an effort to cling to power in this
Province.
It is also sad that some community organisations are also jumping to convenient untruths in
this election season.
Proudly Manenberg, for example, is going to deliver 7 bags of refuse at the Civic Centre
today to to protest against what they claim are poor waste removal services by the City.
But the facts tell a completely different story.
Manenberg gets more waste removal services than any other part of Cape Town. That is a
fact. And even over the weekend, the teams were working in Manenberg and other areas,
removing refuse that is illegally dumped wherever it seems to suit people in various suburbs
in all parts of this City.
It is the only formal settlement in this city that gets free bin bags together with a wheelie bin
service.
And it is the only formal suburb that gets rubbish removed twice a week.
We have also made a special arrangement to send in specialised equipment every three
months to deal with the problem of illegal dumping in the area, although we have actually far
exceeded this agreement.
Last year, for example, we cleared illegally dumped waste 8 times, doing a total of 57 days of
work in the area, and removing 650 loads.
And this year, in February alone, we have already cleared illegally dumped material 3 times.
The standard frequency of specialised removals in the rest of Cape Town is twice a year.
We cannot further increase services to Manenberg, as Proudly Manenberg chairperson Mario
Wanza is demanding today, without taking services away from other communities in Cape
Town, including disadvantaged areas.
This would be completely unfair.
Returning to today’s draft budget, we are continuing with our 100% rates rebate for Cape
Town’s poorest households.
This Multi-Party government was the first to introduce a full 100% rates rebate for the poor.
And we have also greatly increased the number of people who qualify for rebates.
Under the ANC, only those who earned up to R2300 per month or less could apply for
assistance.
Over the past years we have increased the upper income limit to over R7000 per month, and
today we propose to raise the bar further to R8000, bringing even more people into the net of
subsidised services. Let me stress again, we can only do this because there are so many
Capetonians who are willing to pay to make life better for others. This is part of what makes
Cape Town such a special place and we do not take this attitude for granted at all.
On a number of levels, therefore, the draft budget we table today is more ‘pro-poor’ than
anything the ANC has ever put forward in the past, in any city or town in South Africa. As
Kgalema Motlanthe has admitted, ANC’s budgets are about making a few cronies and
deployed cadres rich.
We should also emphasise the fact that poor, middle and upper income citizens of Cape Town
will also benefit equally from increased provision for municipal services.
For example, we have increased public access to driver’s and vehicle licensing with new
testing centres in Philippi, Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain, and upgrading existing centres in
Ottery and Somerset West.
A new centre will also be opening soon in Fish Hoek.
We have improved response times and capacity in our Disaster Management and fire services
by filling over 100 staff vacancies and investing in over a dozen new fire engines and other
specialised vehicles.
We have opened new clinics in Mfuleni, Khayelitsha and Bothasig.
We have invested in major upgrades to transport interchanges in Mitchells Plain, Claremont
and Khayelitsha.
And we have opened new libraries in central Cape Town, Fisantekraal and Durbanville, with
extra computer and internet access.
There are also a number of entirely new projects and services which we have introduced that
are provided for in this year’s budget.
These include the city’s first ever law enforcement training academy, an IT crime fighting and
disaster response system similar to the successful model applied in New York that I saw when
I visited the police headquarters after addressing the United Nations. We have also
introduced specialised units to fight drugs, assist neighbourhood watches, prevent land
invasions, combat cable theft and address vandalism of services.
Finally, we have introduced two outpatient drug treatment facilities, with another to follow
soon, in order to respond to the rapidly growing crisis of drug abuse in Cape Town. Believe
me, this is the biggest social crisis Cape Town faces and if we do not address it collectively,
no-one in this City will be spared the consequences. Already at least 80% of crime in this city
is somehow linked to drug and substance abuse.
These expanded services, together with greater staff capacity, inflation, and higher energy
costs, have all required increases to our proposed operating budget, as Alderman Neilson will
explain in detail.
I would like to thank Alderman Neilson and his team for all of the hard work that they have
put into this draft budget.
I would also like to congratulate them for their department’s outstanding achievements over
the past three years, which include a straight run of unqualified audit reports from the
Auditor-General, the highest credit rating in the country from international company
Moody’s, and our Supply Chain Management’s certification under the rigorous ISO 9001
international quality management standard.
The big picture is that this City is investing more, and producing more, than it has ever done
in the past.
As we enter our third budgeting process since coming to office, this Multi-Party Government,
our City Officials, and citizens of Cape Town should draw encouragement from the three
years of progress so far.
May this inspire us to continue the work we are doing, and to see through the goals of our IDP
for the remaining two years that the electorate has granted us.
I thank you.