Pretoria - Tshwane mayor Randall Williams wants the provincial and national governments to look into amending the Constitution in respect of the funding of the human settlements programmes in municipalities.
Williams said human settlements programmes in municipalities were currently not funded, which inhibited efforts by them from rolling out human settlements infrastructure.
He was reacting to a concern raised in council last week regarding the existence of pit toilets in some parts of the metro.
In January, residents of New Eersterus in Hammanskraal expressed deep- disappointment at the lack of basic services such as flushing toilets, saying they risked falling into pit toilets dug outside their houses.
That was during a visit by the Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile, who condemned the continued use of pit toilets in many households in the province, saying it was “unacceptable”.
Williams said: “What I would like to discuss with the provincial and national government is that for human settlements, local governments get no budget, because it is a competency of national and provincial governments.”
He said he would plead with the national government to “amend the Constitution and provide funding, especially to metropolitan cities so that we can provide human settlements”.
“Currently, that is not happening. We get no funding for human settlements,” he said.
He said that in the early 2000s, the minister of human settlements promised that in 10 years’ time, there would be no more pit toilets in South Africa.
“Here we are 20 years later, and it is a massive problem,” Williams said.
He said it was not true that his administration had abandoned the indigent programme to provide free basic electricity and water to the poor.
“We have more than 42 000 families on our indigent programme, and we are going to expand it,” he said.
His administration was also accused of neglecting service delivery in the townships and prioritising the suburbs, which formed part of the party’s constituencies.
ANC chief whip in council Aaron Maluleke said new utility services MMC Daryl Johnston spoke about electricity in the suburbs and forgot that people in Soshanguve had endured a month without electricity.
“People of Ga-Rankuwa and Winterveld don’t have electricity as we speak. It means only suburbs can get a budget, but townships can only get promises,” Maluleke said.
Former Tshwane EFF chairperson, Moafrika Mabogoane, commended Williams’s move of rebuilding the Wapadrand substation in Pretoria East but lamented that he did not address the plight of the Walmasthall residents who lacked tarred roads and access to electricity.
“You don’t say anything about many other townships in Tshwane which need the same services. It is not a favour to give poor people in the townships what the affluent areas are getting,” he said.
Pretoria News