New Ekurhuleni mayor takes over at troubled metro
Rubbish piling up on the streets, sewage spillages, damage to infrastructure and ratings agency downgrade.
These are the problems newly elected Ekurhuleni mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza, an ANC councillor, will be confronted with as he takes the helm at the troubled metro to become the metro's fourth mayor in four years.
Residents associations in the metro said his election brought them little hope that service delivery which has been deteriorating over the pasty year, or more for other areas, improve.
In March, Moody’s Investor Service sent the rating of Ekurhuleni further into junk territory.
Sowetan’s sister paper Business Day reported that the ratings agency downgraded Ekurhuleni’s long-term issuer (domestic), senior unsecured ratings, three notches below the highest junk status in a reflection of very high credit risk.
The city failed to get a clean audit for the first time in three years.
Phakela Maitse, leader of the Palm Ridge Community Forum, said service delivery had deteriorated over the past three months.
“We haven’t had any waste collected in the past year. Every time we would complain, a new contractor would be called in. They would only work for one week and then something goes wrong in the municipality and then we are back where we started. We have issues of water and electricity. There are illegal connections and just this past week a minor died due to an electrical illegal connection, but it seems the municipality does not care,” said Maitse.
Maitse said the municipality is just a playground for officials who don’t care about residents.
“We don’t have faith in the coalition or the new mayor. He will pretend to care about us and then in six months someone will file a motion of no confidence and we still be on the ground complaining about water, waste and electricity,” said Maitse.
Tembisa Community Forum spokesperson Xolani Mnisi said they are not expecting service delivery to change even with a new mayor elected.
“Service delivery issues will not be resolved any time soon. Waste collection is a big problem in this community. We have to always remind the municipality to come and collect it. Weeks can go by without anything being done and then we would have to do it ourselves. So this [election of a new mayor] is just another political trick,” said Mnisi.
Jakkie Janse van Vuuren, chairperson of LamDel Residents Association in Germiston, said service delivery in the town has severely declined, especially in the current year and more so in the last few months.
“Energy restoration takes days and water pipe bursts are not attended to. Sewer is flowing [on the streets]. Waste and rubbish is overflowing in the streets and there are no street lights. The track record is dire but we have to remain optimistic that the new mayor will break the trend and set up a mayoral committee that will truly focus on service delivery,” said van Vuuren.
“Funds and resources must be allocated to the critical issues affecting residents and businesses alike, energy and water issues, collapsed infrastructure and empowering the [workers] with tools and equipment.”
The ANC’s Xhakaza is an Ekurhuleni regional task team member and served as an MMC for group corporate and shared services.
He is also a former finance and economic development MMC under former ANC mayor Mzwandile Masina.
Governance analysts lambasted the instability in SA’s coalition governments, saying residents are the ones who suffer the most.
University of SA’s lecturer in the department of political sciences Sonet Solomons said SA had been experiencing challenges with coalition governance.
“One of the biggest challenges caused by the frequent changes in leadership is the lack of service delivery, as this cannot be scheduled without a mayor in office. This halt negatively impacts on the most fragile citizens and has dire consequences on their communities.
“Going into the 2024 elections, political parties need to find a more sustainable manner of co-governance to increase public trust in municipalities and to ensure that citizens’ needs are met,” she said.
Another analyst from Unisa, Dr Edwin Yingi, said SA has entered into unchartered waters with the coalition government.
“We have witnessed the failures and weakness of coalitions in the heartbeat of SA that is Gauteng and once Gauteng fails, we might not see the benefit of coalitions even if it is working elsewhere [in the country]. We seem to have people focusing on who becomes the mayor. We need a framework to regulate how these coalitions work,” he said.
