Ekurhuleni mayor vows to cut down overseas trips, personnel costs to save money
The newly elected Ekurhuleni Mayor Mzwandile Masina delivered his first speech in front of the Ekurhuleni councillors at the council meeting held in Germiston on September 29.
In the wake of the violent student protests, the mayor said they are aware of the needs of young people who yearn for education.
“In light of this, we are on a quest to advance their future prospects. To this end, we will be extending our financial assistance, increasing our bursary scheme tenfold from R10 million to R100 million, giving full scholarships to our deserving children,” said Masina.
“Still in the area of higher education, in partnership with the private sector we shall be doing the sod turning for the new Hospitality School in Kempton Park. Furthermore, in the IT sector we shall increase our Wi-Fi hot-spots by an additional 100 spots across 25 sites, giving access to about 130 000 members of the community.”
Masina used the opportunity to condemn the brutal actions against the 18-year-old woman who was allegedly raped and dumped at a mine in Angelo.
“We have noticed with concern that illegal mining has resulted in gangsterism in certain communities while also escalating the rate of crime in some.
“As such I wish to make the commitment that the metro police working with the SAPS will be increasing visibility and vigilance in identified hot-spots,” Masina said.
Masina announced that he will be employing an open-door policy to allow politicians and members of the house to share their ideas of how they can all improve the lives of the people.
He also added that a total of 100 000 housing units and 59 000 serviced stands will be rolled out to deal with the housing backlog.
“We shall not be deterred in our quest to promote local entrepreneurs through our supply chain processes, hence our resolve to move with speed to make our tender documents accessible to them for free if acquired online – and to ensure that our suppliers are paid within 15 days after the submission of an invoice.
“We shall also be streamlining our tender processes so that a tender is finalised within four months from advertisement instead of the present status quo of six to 18 months,” Masina said.
Still on the housing issue, verification of the 1996 waiting list will proceed. The reviewed list will be used as a reference point going forward.
“We shall further introduce a biometric system to control the management of the list so that houses are given to their rightful beneficiaries.
“In appreciation of work done by NGOs and other community stakeholders in assisting us do our work in communities, we shall be increasing the Grant-in-Aid kitty to R100 million with immediate effect to give impetus to our pro-poor policy statement,” Masina said.
Masina said in their mission to fight fraud and corruption to run a clean government, the metro will soon be vetting all SCM staff, SCM committees, HODs and project manages.
All members of staff in the metro will be made to sign a declaration never to do business with the metro or any organ of the state.
Importantly referring to cost-cutting, Masina said they will be conducting an analyisis of their drivers with special emphasis on cutting costs on overseas trips, personnel costs, catering, fleet management costs and the telephone and electricity bills.
Masina highlighted some of the administrations 100-day progrmame which will proceed until 2021.
In the health sector, more clinics will be officially opened while increasing the number of 24-hour clinics by an additional three more facilities from eight to 11 by the first quarter of 2017.
The metro will be cracking the whip on criminals and drug peddlers in hot-spots such as Kempton Park, Germiston and Boksburg CBD.
A total of 292 families will soon receive proper housing, with an additional 280 to receive title deeds as the metro addresses the issue of security of tenure.
The process towards the establishment of the Ekurhuleni power station has already started.
“In this regard the advertisement calling for proposals for the Ekurhuleni Power Generation Programme (EPGP) has already gone out. Once complete this programme will produce an additional 10 per cent of energy for the citizens of the city as a means to augment the Eskom supply,” Masina said.
Masina said power will be switched on to the first 12 Reiger Park houses which have never had electricity since they were built in the 1800s.
He also said the issue of the unstable electricity supply in the Germiston area will be attended to and R150 million will be used in this regard.
In the metro’s efforts to preserve water, a total of 1 700 old and leaking water meters will be replaced.
The metro will also be officially assuming ownership of the Dawn Park house of the late liberation struggle icon Chris Hani and turning it into a museum.
The process to curb illegal dumping continues to gain momentum. In this regard 22 000 240L bins with a microchip to prevent theft will be rolled out to outstanding communities.
In closing, Masina announced that the metro will relaunch its Service Delivery Friday campaign.
This campaign will take place every Friday between 7am and 9am.
“Every Friday I will lead a team of all MMCs and the administration led by the Acting City Manager to visit communities with the aim of responding to their service delivery complaints on the spot.
“With us will be a technical team that can respond to issues as and when they are spotted. We will be extending an invitation to all critical stakeholders including ward councillors and ward committees to join us in this process,” Masina said.
