Report on the Council Meeting of 29 July 2010

The Mayor, Cllr Amos Masondo, has once again demonstrated very clearly that he only pays lip service to the notions of transparency and account ability and that he steers very far from them in practice: the Mayor’s Office controls one of the single largest budget allocations in the City of Johannesburg. In the 2010/11 financial year it will be close to R1b, which is 12% of the total operating budget. The performance of this Office is however NOT reported to any committee for discussion, but only to Council every quarter. Cllr Masondo, regularly refuses to answer any questions on these reports even if only for clarification purposes, thus making the Council’s oversight function impossible. This is in spite of a stipulation in the Municipal Systems Act that a municipality must ensure regular performance reporting to the Council, other political structures, political office bearers, the public and other organs of State.

1. DA Motions

In tacit acknowledgement of the positive contribution the DA makes to Council affairs, the ANC supported the two motions introduced by the DA the July Council meeting. This is a 100 % turnaround from the ruling party’s policy to NEVER support a DA motion.

• DA Cllr Ann Barnes asked Council to recommend that the names of JMPD officers must at all times be displayed visibly and may not be covered by an outer garment. At night their names must be displayed in reflecting lettering. The adoption of this motion will hopefully go a long way to curb corruption amongst the JMPD.

• In the second motion Cllr John Mendelsohn proposed that the Council investigates the huge back log in clearance certificates and that urgent steps be taken to reduce that backlog as soon as possible. The ANC supported the motion on condition that all references to corruption and fraud be deleted from the body of the motion.

2. Finances

• The tender Processing Summary EAC Deviation Report, June 2009 – June2010 is another report that cannot be interrogated. The least reason is the 10 missing pages of the report. From this report it is learnt that the City spent R9m on soccer tickets while there were deviations to the tune of R20 m for various contracts which are linked to support for the Taxi Industry in the signing of Bus Operating Contracts for phase 1A of the Rea Vaya Rapid Bus System. The quest for service providers for the JMPD passing our parade could not go through the tender process as “the hosting of the JMPD passing out parade was only confirmed a day prior to the event”??? This report will be further scrutinized by the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC).

• The Service Delivery Budget Implementation plan has once again proven to be a futile exercise as it is a synopsis of the quarterly reports instead of being a handy tool whereby the progress, and especially the monthly spending of the various departments can be monitored against targets.

3. Performance Reports, Performance Assessment Reports and Oversight Reports.

While the oversight reports for the third quarter (January to March 2010) of the 2009 /10 financial year) gave oversight of how the different MOE’s performed during that period, very little could be done or said to contribute towards improved performance as the year end had already been reached at the end of June.

A new addition to the performance reports are the Performance Assessment Reports which are meant for the Mayoral Committee to inform them as the executive of Council on the progress in the relevant MOE’s. These reports would have had more impact and value if comprehensive reasons for underperformance were included in them.

• Registrations for the Expanded Works Programme (ESP) is progressing dismally due to inadequate access points for registration. The Department of Community Development has thus revised the annual target of beneficiaries downwards from 800 000 to 300 000 as an additional condition for obtaining a clean audit will be actual performance reached. According to the ESP certain benefits such as rate cuts and additional free water and electricity a given to households whose monthly income is R3 660 and less. To date there has been much iniquity in the roll out of the programme as all the registration points are in the townships and in Thuso House in Braamfontein. This programme has also not been actively promoted in areas which do not have registration points. It has thus been made very difficult, if not impossible for a large part of the City’s population who qualify for these benefits to benefit by them

• In the Department of Development Planning and Urban Management lack of sufficient funding has hampered crucial work, such as the assessment and determination of new spatial form for dysfunctional industrial nodes and the upgrading of certain marginalized areas. It is also unacceptable that the department does not follow up with the necessary action once a notice is served for town planning transgressions. This inaction sends out the message that developers and the people can do as they wish.

• The ANC has called for an own bid fund for the Johannesburg Tourism Department which is totally reliant on the City for its funding. This is in response to the DA’s many attempts to come to the bottom of the R90 m of taxpayers’ money spent for the pleasure of hosting the Miss World Contest. Nearly two years after the signing of that contract it is still shrouded in secrecy – the latest is that the contract has a non-disclosure clause!

• The Johannesburg Property Company which manages the entire City owned property portfolio is not up to date with a register of all the properties. The company also has many outstanding leases of sporting facilities.

• The many problems that beset the Finance Department include its liquidity and solvency ratio, a decline in the collection rate of debt, a backlog of clearance certificates and a myriad of other problems connected to the R800m Phakama project.

• The Housing Department is underperforming on all fronts. The funds originally allocated for new units by the City as well as the Province have both been cut by approximately 70%, resulting in the reduction of the housing targets for delivery in the 2009/10 financial year from 20 000 to 8 000. During the first nine months of the year only 4,135 units (52% of the revised target), had been built. Similarly the target of 20 informal settlements whose dwellers are to be relocated to formalized areas, has been downscaled to

12. The dwellers of 9 such settlements had been moved to formalized areas by the third quarter of 2009/10. The City remains way behind the Mayor’s target for the total eradication of informal settlements by 2014. In spite of a dismal track record in the delivery of housing, the ANC’s Mayoral Committee Member for Housing, Cllr Ruby Mathang, insists to blame the housing shortage on an influx of people into the City.

• City Power, as a supplier, has been separated from its clients, as a result of the transfer of the utility’s customer service to the City’s revenue walk-in centres. With this move a part of its responsibility is taken out of its hands and given to the City. The DA requested that regular revenue reports serve before the section 79 Infrastructure and Services to assist City Power to keep records of its income.

• Metrobus showed a profit for the first time in its existence. This is ascribed mainly to the introduction of inspectors on the busses and a new policy whereby bus drivers are rotated instead of driving the same bus route.

4. Urban Planning

• The Spatial Development Plan (SDF) as well as the respective Regional Spatial Development Plans (RSDF) for 2010/11 are tabled. Guidelines for inclusionary housing as well as environmental are included in the SDF for the first time. The environmental guidelines are long overdue as there is always a clash of interest between the built and green environments and over the past years little cognizance was taken of green interests. The SDP calls for creative thinking in order to implement the new guidelines.

• The Council has set a very bad example by allowing for a road reserve between Hearn and Rocky Drives, against the Northcliff Koppie to be sold for private use, Neither the residents nor the ward councillor were consulted on the matter. The request by the DA ward councillor, Patricia Brugman Richards, that a condition be made that only indigenous plants be allowed. on the alienated land was summarily rejected by ANC Cllr Oupa Monareng as “indigenous is too wide a concept”

• 18 other land items dealing with alienations, servitudes leases etc were passed, most pof which did not go to the relevant section 79 Committee for scrutiny.

5. Next Council Sitting

• The next sitting of Council will be on August 26 2010.

Cllr. Gordon Mackay
City of Johannesburg (Ward 90)
Tel: +27 (83) 2557461
Fax: +27 (11) 8770961
e-mail: gordon.mackay81@gmail.com
City of Johannesburg Website: www.joburg.org.za
DA Website:www.dajhb.co.za