Sisulu blatantly excludes City of Cape Town
Minister Lindiwe Sisulu has once again misused her position as the National Minister of Human Setllements to purposefully block service delivery in the City of Cape Town.
Last week Tuesday, the Department of Human Settlements invited all metro mayors to attend a meeting in Johannesburg where the USDG grant would be discussed. The City's Executive Mayor, Patricia De Lille, had a long-standing commitment which she could not cancel for a meeting where she was given only three days' notice.
She communicated her unavailability with the Minister's office the very next day but added that she would be sending me as her representative in my capacity as Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements. Considering that the meeting pertained to my directorate, both myself and the Mayor felt it apt that I should attend the meeting.
On Friday afternoon, we received further communication from the Minister's office that ‘the meeting is strictly for Executive Mayors' and that if a mayor was not able to attend, there would be no need to send a representative.
By this stage, all arrangements, which included the cancellation of community meetings, had been made in order for me to attend the meeting.
The Mayor once more wrote back to the Minister, insisting that the City of Cape Town should not be excluded due to her unavailability and the Minister's unprofessionalism. The Mayor also reminded Minsiter Sisulu that it is within her delegated powers to send me as her representative.
This morning I proceeded to travel to Johannesburg to attend the meeting. An email was sent from the Minister's office at 10:00 this morning when I was already en route to the meeting once more indicating that I was not allowed to attend. Upon my arrival, I entered the meeting. About 40 minutes into the discussions, Minister Sisulu arrived and asked me to leave the meeting venue. She personally blocked me from taking part in the discussion that directly impacts my directorate, and service delivery in the city at large.
It has become the culture of the ANC-led National Government to invite the City of Cape Town on short notice.
This is not the first time that Minister Sisulu abuses her power to be an obstacle to the delivery of houses in the City of Cape Town. We have seen her in action with the Lwandle Inquiry political hit-squad. Furthermore, she was also rapped over the knuckles by the National Treasury who stated that the Minister acted irregularly when she delayed the allocation of our Municipal Human Settlements Capacity Grant.
In the run-up to the 2016 municipal elections, we will not tolerate the politicisation of service delivery because the ANC fears losing more municipalities. We would like to get on with the business of governance which we have been elected to do. Minister Sisulu would do well to concern herself with service delivery instead of looking for opportunities to further abuse her power.
Statement issued by Benedicta van Minnen, Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, City of Cape Town, March 16 2015
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