MEC Maile attempting to Hijack CoJ housing development: a cheap publicity stunt 

19 September 2019

The City has learned with shock and dismay that the MEC of Human Settlements, Urban Planning and COGTA, Lebogang Maile, aims to hijack a City of Johannesburg housing development in Riverside View as a cheap publicity stunt.

In a media advisory issued yesterday, MEC Maile announced that he will be handing over housing units to beneficiaries of the Riverside View development today.

This is a bizarre turn of events given the fact that these housing units were built and paid for by the City. In addition, MEC Maile has made no effort whatsoever to engage the City’s leadership on this event.

MEC Maile went so far as to state that “the handover forms part of the electoral commitments by the ANC-led provincial administration”. Such a statement is not only factually incorrect given that these units were built by the City, but it also embarrassingly blurs the line between party and state.

Such conduct is a deceitful abuse of power and will not be tolerated by the City. Contrary to his claims that the event will be attended by COJ officials, no officials will be in attendance and all councillors will be locked in a two-day Council meeting. Considering this, it would appear that the timing of the event is an intentional effort to snub the City.

Thus far, 1228 housing units have been completed at the Riverside View development, of which 1051 has been allocated. The balance of 177 units were to be allocated at the beginning of October 2019.

Last week, City officials approached the Provincial Government for purpose of finalizing the beneficiary list, as is normal practice with all housing developments. Once the allocations have been verified, the City prepares the necessary allocation documents. 

Following this engagement, it would appear that the MEC decided to claim the project as his own. This is tantamount to causing chaos in the environment of housing allocations, given that these beneficiaries have been engaging the City to date.

Simply put, MEC Maile’s conduct smacks of desperation and is consistent with his continuous abuse of his position for party politicking. This flies in the face of inter-governmental relations as espoused in the Constitution and cannot be tolerated.

I will be writing to Premier Makhura to request an urgent meeting and his intervention to stop the continuous and flagrant abuse of office by MEC Maile.

We know that MEC Maile is currently under heavy pressure to deliver. It was reported last month that Premier David Makhura had given MEC Maile 100 days to resuscitate botched housing projects in an effort to ease the housing backlog in the Province.

Earlier this week, MEC Maile announced at a press conference that he has devised a plan to redevelop Alexandra. This too came as a surprise to the City, as MEC Maile has made no effort whatsoever to engage the City on these plans. Ultimately, any such plan would require collaboration between the City and Province.

Yesterday, I wrote to MEC Maile, requesting a copy of the actual plan so as to better understand the impact that it will have on the City, its development planning and service delivery responsibilities. We will wait to see whether any tangible plan is forthcoming.

Given previous failed promises to provide a plan for the development of areas such as Lenasia, the City remains cautious as to whether MEC Maile has a tangible plan for Alexandra. We hope that it is not just another pipedream.

This latest development also comes hot on the heels of MEC Maile threatening to withhold the City’s Human Settlements Development Grant (HSDG) allocation for the next financial year. This follows Provincial Government’s pattern of intentionally reducing the City’s HSDG funding post the 2016 local government elections in which the ANC lost control of the City’s purse.

What the Province fails to realise is that these irrational decisions and bullying tactics hurt our poorest residents the most.

I implore the Premier to intervene in this matter to uphold proper levels of engagements between the City and Province to ensure that the petty politicking does not overtake service delivery.

Should the Premier fail to respond to our request for his intervention, the City will be left with no option but to consider its legal options.

Issued by Tony Taverna-Turisan, Director: Mayoral Communications, 19 September 2019