This morning ActionSA has announced that we will be contesting the 2021 Local Government Elections in eThekwini.

The eThekwini Municipality, amidst corruption scandals involving former Executive Mayor Zandile Gumede, as well as City Manager Sipho Nzuza, have robbed the people of eThekwini of millions of Rands worth of resources meant for improved service delivery within the City.

As ActionSA, we believe that the residents of eThekwini deserve an ethical and competent government that can build an inclusive and prosperous city for all its residents. This will not happen under the ANC.

That is why ActionSA has committed to contesting the Local Government Elections in eThekwini, to ensure that we can unseat the ANC by bringing them below 50%.

As ActionSA grows throughout the country with over 200 000 volunteers forming part of the party’s ground forces, this indicates the party’s commitment to providing a credible political alternative for the people of South Africa. 

Having led a complex 7-way coalition in the City of Johannesburg, I hope to use my experience to inform the clean governance framework to be replicated in eThekwini. 

While most political parties can only promise what they will do, ActionSA can back this up by what was delivered to the residents of Johannesburg during my short three-year tenure. 

Despite inheriting a City that was broken, my administration was able to: 

• Cut over R2 billion in wasteful expenditure and direct it towards electricity, roads, water, housing and transport. 
• Increase investment in Johannesburg from R4.5 billion to R17.3 billion, for the first time increasing economic growth in the City. 
• Opened 7 Opportunity Centres that provided real support to grow hundreds of small businesses every year. 
• Established an anti-corruption unit, led by a former Scorpion, that investigated more than 6000 cases, involving more than R35 billion in transactions and making over 800 arrests. 
• Reduce electricity outages by refurbishing old sub-stations and replacing damaged cables. 
• Resurface over 900km of roads in Johannesburg and tar 200km of gravel roads. 
• Deliver more than 7000 RDP homes and issues nearly 8000 title deeds to families who had waited for decades to own their houses. 
• Initiate site and services projects that would deliver over 9000 fully serviced stands for families to build their homes on. 
• Electrified 30 informal settlements who had lived for decades without electricity, water or toilets. 
• Reduce the number of water leaks and bursts from 45 000 per year to 37 000 per year by replacing old water pipes. 
• Increase the number of JMPD officers by 1500 and establishing an anti-drugs unit that waged war on drug dealers. 
• Established the first drug rehabilitation centres operated by the City. 
• Initiated that Inner City Project that handed over 154 hijacked buildings to the private sector to build low-cost affordable accommodation, student accommodation and small business spaces. This project alone would generate 14 500 accommodation units, achieve #2 billion in investment and create 24 000 jobs. 
• Identified 37 abandoned factories around Johannesburg to handover to the private sector to open manufacturing facilities that would employ residents in nearby communities without work. 
• Extended the operating hours of 26 City clinics to operate late into the night and over weekends to ensure that patients could always get medical assistance. 
• Procured 10 mobile clinics that could travel through Johannesburg offering medical services to communities located far away from other health facilities. 
• Increased resident satisfaction with service delivery in Johannesburg from 61% in 2016 to 73% in 2019 – the highest levels in the history of the City. 

This is what ActionSA is offering to the people of eThekwini: an ethical and competent alternative that is dedicated to building a professional public service that will serve residents as its top priority.