Cape mayoral committee likely to change

[BTTB]

Cape mayoral committee likely to change

September 19, 2006, 12:15

Helen Zille, the Cape Town mayor, has been officially informed that her mayoral executive committee system is likely to be replaced. Richard Dyantyi, the Western Cape local government and housing minister, delivered a letter in this regard to the city, a short while ago.

In the letter, Dyantyi says he is considering the amendment because he wants to see an inclusive government in the city that works for all communities equally.

He says this will bring a stable government which will represent 91% of the electorate, instead of the present 51%. Dyantyi says the city and local authority body, the SA Local Government Authority (Salga), will have the opportunity to share their views with him.

The amendment is allowed by the Western Cape determination of types of Municipalities Act of 2000 and the Local Government Municipal Structures Act of 1998.

There you have it.
Democracy at work.

Although Mr Dyantyi is probably correct in his assumption that a greater proportion of the electorate will get representation in the Mayoral Committee, which is only a mere 10 plus 1 persons, one cannot help but think that there are other motives in this latest move.

I doubt the DA will take this laying down and the ANC will not relent.
Expect the Attorneys and Advocates to be having a lucrative Christmas this year.

 

[kaspaas]

Will the ANC implement the same strategy in each and every municipality where they excluded minority participation based on their majority rule?

 

[BTTB]

Will the ANC implement the same strategy in each and every municipality where they excluded minority participation based on their majority rule?

The Executive Mayoral System Sucks when you are on the losing end of it.
All parties need to acknowledge this, the DA and ANC included.
Closing the doors to Public Participation flaunts the Municipal System Act which is supposed to enshrine Public Participation.
The system was brought in by The ANC under the auspices of Faster Service Delivery. Faster Service Delivery to whom one must ask?

As far as the Cape Metropole is concerned much of the mess can be blamed on the ID who wanted to play Kingpin, which is actually not possible as at every turn you will have to side with the various role players.

I hope this thing goes to The Constitutional Court where they can declare the whole Executive Mayoral System unconstitutional. This is something The DA should push for. They may lose a bit of ground in The Cape, but country-wide they will score.

 

[Sarakael]

Will the ANC implement the same strategy in each and every municipality where they excluded minority participation based on their majority rule?

no

 

[kilps]

Not discussing the actuall system, if it exists then the provincial goverment should not be allowed to change it, it has been chosen for a municiple goverment by those elected in a municiple election - not everyone votes for the same people each time round

 

[krycor]

It should only be allowed to change if they change it everywhere.. this stinks of double standards much like the whole naming of airports situation.

 

[kilo39]

This is disgusting and shows the ANC's true colours re: democracy.

They have zero interest. Can't do the job and won't let anybody else do it!

Sickening. Puke.

ANC starts its war on Zille September 19 2006
The ANC's plan to strip mayor Helen Zille of her powers got under way on Monday, with the MEC for Local Government, Richard Dyantyi, saying that he would send a letter notifying the city of the proposed change to the municipal structure.

 

[Ekhaatvensters]

Thsi is so funny, because before when the ANC was in power and representing a similar percentage group, then there was no problem. As soon as another party takes power.. they pull the technicalities..

Its so pathetic, how can we expect to have a real democracy when as soon as the ANC arent in power they just change things to give them selves back the power..

 

[kilo39]

Its so pathetic, how can we expect to have a real democracy when as soon as the ANC arent in power they just change things to give them selves back the power..

Our darkest days are here again.

Cry the beloved country.

Our short walk in freedom.

 

[BTTB]

A Complete and Total Circus

Actually if you analyse the whole stuff-up in the Western Cape you can place most of the blame on Marthinus Van Schalckwyk and the now defunct NNP.
The ANC had good teachers on how to manipulate the system from the Ex NNP politicians toying to keep themselves on the Gravy Train.

Personally I have decided to start shedding myself from my duties within the little Ratepayers Association I am part of. It isn't worth it.
The last 6 years has been most unproductive.
I think my mind was made up yesterday, although a long time coming, when our new Ward Councillor completely overlooked our requests in the Ward Committee Allocations for projects within our area and put his own agenda forward.
A whole year of meetings and talking down the tubes. Not again.
They can have meetings on their own now as I refuse to be part of it.

When the Boswell Wilkie Circus closed down, the City of Cape Town took over.

 

[The_Right_Honourable_Brit]

It seems like the ANC were looking at all the laws and then decided "Ah! Here's one"...it really seems they have taken the law from a closet and dusted off a bit.

Hopefully the DA challenge this in court although since it's written in law, it will be very hard to win.

 

[Ekhaatvensters]

Well one thing I have read in todays Argus that is bad for the DA's case, is that they originally capmaigned to have the executive committee system during the elections. Now that they have got the mayoral system, they seem to want it becasue it gives them power.. so they are being rather hypocritical too.

But the fact remians that the ANC only want to change it to get themselves some power back and to avoid being able to be ousted from power again.
Both parties seems to be a bit guilty of the same thing, but the ANC are the ones undermining democracy by using their national power to serve their purposes provincially.

 

[vespax]

and who benefits from this fiasco? Not the hundreds of thousands of people struggling on the fringes of the city. Or the people paying rates to hold the city budget up.

Africa not helping Africa again...... pity really.

 

[BTTB]

Zille gets backing from De Klerk foundation

Zille gets backing from De Klerk foundation

...It said the Municipal Structures Act could not be used by one sphere of government to interfere with another for political reasons. The Constitution allowed intervention by national and provincial government in municipal affairs, but only where the aim was to ensure that municipalities did their job efficiently. "In other words, interference must be justified by an inability of a municipality to effectively perform its functions," the centre said. "There is no such suggestion in respect of Cape Town."....

 

[Dave A]

Well one thing I have read in todays Argus that is bad for the DA's case, is that they originally capmaigned to have the executive committee system during the elections. Now that they have got the mayoral system, they seem to want it becasue it gives them power.. so they are being rather hypocritical too.

I think who has the moral high ground hinges on the basis of implimentation.

It seems the DA was campaigning for the executive committee system in all municipalities. The ANC is proposing a change in only one - coincidentally the only one they don't control.

Hopefully the DA won't fall into the trap of simply defending their position in Cape Town. The ANC is basing the move on representation issues - then apply them equally across all municipalities.

There apears to be no valid grounds for Cape Town to be singled out for exceptional treatment. If Cape Town is considered to be having management problems that need to be solved by the executive committee system, then the ANC should start with the really mismanaged municipalities under their own control.

 

[BTTB]

I think who has the moral high ground hinges on the basis of implimentation.

It seems the DA was campaigning for the executive committee system in all municipalities. The ANC is proposing a change in only one - coincidentally the only one they don't control.

Hopefully the DA won't fall into the trap of simply defending their position in Cape Town. The ANC is basing the move on representation issues - then apply them equally across all municipalities.

There apears to be no valid grounds for Cape Town to be singled out for exceptional treatment. If Cape Town is considered to be having management problems that need to be solved by the executive committee system, then the ANC should start with the really mismanaged municipalities under their own control.

Good Post DaveA.

I think Ekhaatvensters must remember that the DA was forced to form a coalition with the smaller parties in the two week period after The Election in March. They had to do this in order to vote Zille into power as The ID's De Lille was siding with Nomaindia from The ANC for Mayor.
This Coalition was formed with a firm agreement that the small parties had representation in the Mayoral Committee.
There is only 10 seats plus The Mayor's one seat.
The ANC and the ID are not happy about this and rightly so, but they forced the DA into this coalition as had they not formed The Coalition they would have lost the slender vote to the ANC and the ID coalition.

It was a odd scenario in March which has brought some interesting politics.

If Zille is made a Ceremonial Mayor it would be a great loss to Cape Town as she is actually a very good Manager.
But I doubt Dyantyi and his obvious membership of the ANC are too concerned about having a good manager.
He is more concerned about controlling the Cash Flow of the City of Cape Town's Budget and that is not an assumption, but a fact.
The ANC's goal is to spend the whole Cape Budget in the poorer areas. This politically correct, but since when must Local Government provide houses for every Tom, D1ck, Mary or Jane. It was never there function although yes they can do it, but the Budget of Cape Town is nowhere near enough to do all this.
The problem is the areas that actually pay rates and taxes are not getting any service let alone Capital Expenditure.
Mayor Zille, if left unchecked will alter this situation in the next financial year and this why the ANC are hell bent in stopping her. It really isn't that difficult to understand.
It is all about who controls the money.
Service? What is that?

 

[kilo39]

He is more concerned about controlling the Cash Flow of the City of Cape Town's Budget and that is not an assumption, but a fact.
The ANC's goal is to spend the whole Cape Budget in the poorer areas.

Um, where exactly. Because I have yet to see any impact - anywhere?

Where are the houses, where are the roads, where are the telephones. Where are the jobs?

Zero, zilch, nada - not ever. Not then, not now, not whenever.

 

[BTTB]

Robin Hood Politics

Um, where exactly. Because I have yet to see any impact - anywhere?

Where are the houses, where are the roads, where are the telephones. Where are the jobs?

Zero, zilch, nada - not ever. Not then, not now, not whenever.

The bulk of the money is going to the poorer areas. Fact.
Whether it is all of our money, I cannot say?
I would think that our Ward would generate about R100Million or more per annum in rates, electricity, RSC Levies etc. This is a thumbsuck, but a great deal of our Ward is Industrial and Commercial properties.

You will need to drive out to places like Browns Farm and the like to see where your money is being spent.
N2 Gateway perhaps?

The Subcouncil Area I am in comprises a large area with people from all income groups.
The poorer areas got almost 65% of the total budget of R23Million.
The Subcouncil Area consists of 7 Wards.
The City of Cape Town has about 110 Wards.

The area I am in got just short of 2% of the total budget which comes to just over R400K for the financial year up to the 30th of June 2006.
These are the facts and figures and I have the paperwork right in front of me.
I actually just entered this data into a small Excel File to analyse the percentages from the 7 Wards.

There you have it.
7 Wards - R23Million - One Wards gets 65% - One Ward gets 2%.

A gross disparity of the actual way the money is generated on the ground as the Ward that got 2%, the Ward I live in, which probably generated 60-70% of the revenue created within this particular Subcouncil Area. And the Ward that got 65% of the Budget probably generated 2% of the revenue collected by Council.
In our area the only things that have happened in the last couple of years is the fixing of Potholes, Missing Drain Covers and a few projects like Swings and Slides in a few of the Parks in the area, otherwise nothing else.
And the time from reporting a missing drain cover or pothole to the time it actually gets fixed can be several months.

I am not saying I am unhappy about the situation, actually I am a bit annoyed. It is the fact that the people in our area pay good money to the City of Cape Town and we have nothing to show for it. We dare ask for anything.
The Ward Committees are a joke as one has to clamour for a measly R200K for which the Ward Councillor has the final say over in any event.
I actually witnessed a ANC Councillor about 2 years ago vote our whole R200K Ward Allocation to one project.
To heck with Public Participation or whose feet he stepped on, he just showed us a toffee and did as he wanted. A whole years work gone in one moment and all politically motivated.

Politics in Cape Town is a complete and total disgrace and do not think The DA will be our saviour as they will sell us out down the road to gain a few pathetic votes.
At least with the ANC you know what is coming. They want your money and be done with it.

 

[jontyB]

@BTTB: that is shocking

 

[Skeptik]

Word is this move came from the TOP. Mbeki paid Dyanji a visit recently and gave him the order. He said Cape Town must fall in line and become ANC.