No significant improvement had been seen in respect of billing, housing, the metro police, emergency management services, the council call centre and the metro buses, the leader of the DA in the City of Johannesburg’s council, Mike Moriarty, said when presenting the party’s annual report card on the council’s performance.
”Overall one must regard the service providers by the city as being too mediocre to be regarded as ‘world class’.”
The 2007 report card was the seventh time the DA had asked its 59 councillors in the Johannesburg municipality to assess the council’s performance.
The card rates the efficiency of the mayoral committee and the managers in charge of council departments.
Moriarty said the performance of the council was, however, getting increasingly difficult to monitor because the council was becoming more secretive.
Mayor Amos Masondo had tried to close down debate by passing a resolution that limited all councillors to only four seconds speaking time per councillor, said Moriarty.
However, the resolution has not been enforced because it limited all councillors, including African National Congress (ANC) councillors, to only four seconds, said Moriarty.
Moriarty said the executive committee’s decision to award bonuses to senior management was clouded in secrecy.
”Who was given how much and on what basis has not been revealed.”
Moriarty said: ”It is unlikely that performance will be improved if it takes place in secret with officials shielded from criticism and the mayor and his team shielded from taking political responsibility.”
Mayor Masondo was given an F-, which is a drop from last year’s rating of a D.
”[Masondo’s] decline in score over the previous year is attributed to a decrease in the openness and transparency of the political environment,” said Moriarty.
The council officials in charge of the Johannesburg Civic Theatre, the Johannesburg Zoo and the finance department were rated the top departmental managers. — Sapa