Elements in the African National Congress (ANC) are planning another bid to make Cape Town ungovernable, city mayor Helen Zille said on Wednesday.
Tabling the city’s R20-billion budget, Zille said Cape Town might declare an intergovernmental dispute over the R500-million it spends every year on unfunded mandates — functions the province should be performing.
She told councillors that the city administration has formulated an integrated development plan (IDP) setting out how the city will be run effectively and efficiently, with good public services.
”I understand that elements in the ANC are planning to use the IDP to stage the eighth attempt to make this city ungovernable,” she said.
She said the plan apparently is to use section 32 of the Municipal Systems Act, which says provincial minister of local government Richard Dyantyi can refuse to accept the IDP if it does not comply with the requirements of the Act.
”I hope that cooler heads in the ANC will prevail and that this attempt to destabilise the city will be stillborn,” she said, adding that there has been far more public participation in the IDP than any other before it.
ANC chief whip in the council Peter Gabriel said Zille’s suggestion is ”a lot of nonsense”, and that she is ”chasing spooks”.
He said the ANC felt that the process of compiling the IDP was flawed, and that there had been inadequate and weak public participation.
The provincial minister for local government has a right to ensure the IDP has gone through the proper processes.
Gabriel said the ”participation” Zille claims involves piggybacking on provincial imbizos, and that the attendance at gatherings has been low, with inadequate transport and not enough advertising.
Zille also announced on Wednesday that Cape Town’s rates and service charges would increase by an average of 15%.
”We need to take the hard decision to implement a substantial increase in rates and tariffs to ensure that we do not fall further behind in service delivery than we already have,” she said.
Electricity charges will increase by an average of 5,6%, solid waste removal charges by 11% and water and sanitation by 19%.
The city will try to limit the impact of the increases on people with fixed and limited incomes, especially pensioners and the disabled, by increasing rebates and support.
”I am mindful that in spite of these measures the majority of the people of Cape Town will feel the impact of the rates and tariff increases,” she said.
But, Zille said, if Cape Town wants to avoid the disaster of collapsing services, and wants to get ahead, it has to invest now. — Sapa