DA to blame for Joburg’s collapse, says ANC as it asks for another chance | The Citizen

A senior ANC leader has blamed the DA for the collapse of services in the City of Johannesburg.

Chairperson of the ANC’s local government intervention task team, Stella Ndabeni-Abrahams, told the media in Johannesburg on Wednesday that the deterioration of the country’s biggest metro began in 2016, when the DA took its first stint at governing Joburg.

“It only got messed up and went down after they took over when they were working with the EFF,” she said.

Ndabani-Abrahams said the City was in a better financial position when the ANC governed outside of a coalition arrangement.

“When they took over from comrade Parks Tau, this municipality had huge reserves,” she said.

Ndabeni-Abrahams, however, admitted that the ANC had learnt some lessons since the 2021 local government elections and now wants to correct the weaknesses they have observed in the governance of municipalities.

“We have introduced 13 reforms through the white paper because we have seen that certain challenges that are faced by municipalities are not entirely dependent on them.

“We have also learnt that we can put certain mechanisms in place in terms of accountability, but that does not mean the application of the mechanisms, and the ANC has been the only party, by the way, that has tried to be transparent and take responsibility for the failures,” she said.

Ndabeni-Abrahams said the ANC has also noted that political instability in municipalities also contributes to the delays in service delivery to residents.

“Once there is infighting, whether it’s because of different political parties or in the same party, then it tells you that there is going to be poor attention in terms of the oversight that must be provided over the executive, and this is where we begin to see the weaknesses,” she said.

Ndabeni said that when the ANC governed most municipalities after 1994, the party faced the challenge of ensuring that most South Africans had basic services such as water and electricity.

“We had to deal with those in the process of implementing, as you know, in your own work you will take time to learn certain things, and therefore when you want to make changes at times you may not be able to due to budgetary constraints.

“This is why we said there is a need for a review of the funding policy for the municipalities; now all these things are lessons because of the experience that we have,” she said.

Meanwhile, Herman Mashaba’s party, ActionSA, has accused the ANC of eroding the good work he began as Joburg mayor under the DA in 2016.

“Under his leadership, investment into Johannesburg increased dramatically. This was at R4.5 billion in the 2016/17 financial year, R8.78 billion in the 2017/18 period, and R17.3 billion in the 2018/19 financial year.

“The Inner-City Rejuvenation Project unlocked R32 billion in private-sector investment, was earmarked to create 22 000 jobs during the construction phase, and would produce 14000 affordable housing units.

“The vision was simple but powerful: create a city that works, and businesses will invest,” said the party in a recent statement.