Charles Molele
City of Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya faces major challenges ahead, including illegal housing in areas like Sunnyside, an electricity crisis, messy city finances, ageing infrastructure, and a neglected Central Business District in Pretoria, the capital.
On top of this, there is a persistent water crisis which has left Hammanskraal residents without water for days, affecting their livelihoods and leaving dozens dead following the outbreak of cholera in the rea.
Other challenges include money to the tune of R6 billion being owed to Eskom and the late submission of five quarterly audit performance committee reports.
Yet Moya, who took the reins on October 9 after the ousting DA mayor Cilliers Brink, is undeterred – and has vowed to fight to the bitter end to turn-around the city.
Indeed, Moya, ActionSA councillor and former deputy mayor of the City of Tshwane, has been making a visible effort to address residents’ complaints, actively enforcing regulations and responding to community concerns.
This week Moya, joined by the Tshwane Metro Police Department, SAPS and other city units, Moya and her team raided a hijacked building housing 500 people.
Their occupancy was unlawful, as the lease had expired, and all water and electricity connections violated the city’s bylaws.
“The City of Tshwane will not tolerate lawlessness. We were in Sunnyside today to reclaim our city. From cleaning to law enforcement, our residents must feel safe,” she told reporters.
“The adherence to our City’s bylaws is paramount. We found an enclosure that had over 50 rooms built under questionable standards. TMPD and City of Tshwane will work to ensure that those responsible for breaching the law are held accountable.”
On Tuesday, Moya met with the office of the Auditor-General of SA to assess the City’s performance in terms of financial management, service delivery, compliance and responsiveness on ethics and fraud.
“We need to control expenditure. While financial stability is our goal, we must manage expenditure carefully in line with our budget. The new administration is committed to acting responsibly with the City’s finances,” Moya said.
“With improved revenue and collection, we will look to the adjustments budget to reallocate resources to frontline services, settle historic debts, and work with labour unions towards a mutually acceptable resolution regarding salary increases backlog.”
Last week, Moya, launched a 100-Day Action Plan, focusing on, among others, transforming the metro’s service delivery, tackling the Eskom debt, and boosting revenue collection.
She boldly said that one of her top priorities was a plan to reduce a R6.76 billion owed to Eskom to at least R5bn by the end of January 2025.
She said the City was also in talks with the Minister of Electricity Kgosientso Ramokgopa to deliberate on ways to service the Eskom debt.
“The City is now in a position to service current debt to Eskom while reducing arrears. In light of this, productive discussions with the Minister of Electricity and Energy, and Eskom as an entity, are laying the ground for a possible out-of-court settlement regarding the R6.76 billion in arrears. This is our top priority,” she claimed.
“Ultimately, our target is to reduce debt owed to Eskom to R5 billion by the end of January, and to build cash-backed reserves of R50 million monthly, totalling approximately R150 million over 100 days.”
Moya further said that the City aimed to stabilise finances by intensifying the revenue-collection campaign called Tshwane Ya Tima programme and improving billing measures.
The revenue collection of the City, she said, has not yet returned to pre-Covid levels with the debtors’ book sitting at R28bn.
“I am proud to report that the City Manager and CFO have made significant progress on this front, with several new measures yielding positive results. The City is on track to achieve a record R4 billion in monthly collections, aiming for R4.4 billion by the end of the financial year,” she said.
“This is up from an average of R3.5 billion per month in previous months. It is critical that we establish a culture of payment. Key to this is moving away from billing customers on estimates and billing them on actual readings. Our target is to reach 95% actual readings within our first 100 days. As part of this strategy we will also be doing an analysis of the City’s debtors book of R28.3 billion to classify debt according to potential of recovery.”
She said the City needed to reduce water and electricity losses.
“We need to reduce water and electricity losses. Water losses currently stand at a staggering 34%, while electricity losses are at 19%. Lowering these levels is crucial for financial sustainability, as every Rand lost on non-revenue water and electricity is diverted from essential service delivery,” said Moya.
“The expanded ‘War on Leaks’ campaign will also be central to this effort, especially as the City and province face an unprecedented water crisis.”
Speaking on equitable basic service delivery and maintaining a clean City, Moya said for too long, many residents have felt abandoned and neglected in terms of basic service delivery.
She said her new administration was here to restore hope and provide equitable service delivery.
“Our goal is to improve lighting in areas that have long been left in darkness. We are also putting measures in place to accelerate response times for water leaks and sewer blockages, aiming to address 90% of complaints within 48 hours, with a long-term target of 24 hours. These issues account for the majority of complaints received by the City,” said Moya.
“To maintain clean townships, we will engage communities in clean-up programmes, including litter-picking, street sweeping, and illegal dumping clearance. We have already embarked on campaigns in Mamelodi, Atteridgeville and the CBD.”
Moya said over the next 100 days, the City has plans to intensify by-law enforcement across Tshwane, saying that this was crucial not only for public safety but also for public health.
“In response to concerns around food safety, we will intensify spaza shop inspections in all seven regions, in partnership with TMPD, SAPS and other stakeholders. Enforcement operations will also cover liquor license compliance, street-vendor trading, and public amenities by-laws. We will also focus on waste management, illegal dumping, and policing derelict buildings,” said Moya.
“Over the longer term, our goal is to build a professional, responsive, and highly functional metro police unit that can ensure the safety and security of all. Ensuring a safe City is non-negotiable for Tshwane’s prosperity.”
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