Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr Leona Kleynhans and Sesotho soundbite by Cllr Ana Motaung.
The DA has the capacity to vastly improve the performance of Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality (TMDM) through a relentless focus on the core functions of its mandate.
Over the last years under the visionless ANC, district municipalities have become feeding schemes with bloated, overpaid staff and politicians, benefiting from reckless spending of small budget allocations on political events, catering, travel, and accommodation, while neglecting core mandates in favour of hare-brained schemes.
Over the past five years, the money spent on a dysfunctional vanity ‘water testing laboratory’ could have bought ten fully equipped fire engines to serve a district notorious for house and veld fires and other disasters, while local municipalities have almost no firefighting capacity. Under a DA government, this will stop.
The TMDM will strive to establish a fully functional District Disaster Management Centre, as in the Western Cape, where no disaster happens without warning, readiness, and an appropriate response. Environmental Health must be a priority to protect residents from disease and potential death caused by the unregulated distribution of food, water, milk, or meat.
The Fezile Dabi District Municipality has already proven that, under a DA government, it is possible to deliver excellent performance while achieving clean audits. We will implement these best practices in TMDM.
When voters give the DA control over TMDM, we will cut waste and fat, use all potential grant funding, and implement zero-based budgeting to establish a district municipality that truly fulfils its purpose and serves residents with excellence.