Outrage over proposed salary hikes for Makana councillors, admin staff PREMIUM By Adrienne Carlisle - 03 May 2021
Civil society organisations have reacted with outrage to the draft budget of the embattled Makana municipality which proposes hefty salary increases for councillors and administration staff, funded in part by huge tariff increases for struggling ratepayers.
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DA and ANC in Knysna clash over appointeeâs suitability
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Cape Town - The DA in Knysna has rejected the appointment of a new director of Community Services for the municipality, claiming the new appointee, Sandile Ngqele, lacks senior managerial experience.
However, the ANC has disputed the claims and said the DA needed to go back to the drawing board and check their facts.
Knysna DA Constituency Head Dion George said Ngqeleâs appointment could result in a costly dispute for the municipality.
George said: âAt a Knysna Council meeting on April 29, the ANC and the KUC (Knysna Unity Congress) voted to appoint a director of Community Services despite councillors being presented with a report which found that the appointed candidate has three judgments and two defaults in a financial history screening report.
The residents have accused ward councillor Simphiwe Tyukana (ANC) of failing to provide them with basic services.
Public Order Police dispersed the protesters with rubber bullets at 08:00 and opened the road. Seven days to respond
The protest was organised by residents of about a dozen settlements.
Ward 41 is one of the biggest wards, where the municipality has been relocating people, many of them destitute and elderly, from wetlands across the municipality.
Monwabisi Yani, a community leader, explained that on 8 April they had handed a petition to City Council Speaker Jonathan Lawack. We gave him seven days to respond, but until now we have not heard from him or the relevant departments.
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Some were dressed in their nightgowns. From as early as 3am they came. On Thursday morning, about 400 Nelson Mandela Bay residents closed the R75 Uitenhage Road and Mission Road with burning tyres and rocks. Some live in informal settlements, others in RDP houses. They all want to have electricity, water and sanitation. They are fed up that municipal officials have not responded to a petition they submitted on 8 April.
They also want the Housing Development Agency (HDA) to be removed from building RDP houses in ward 41 where they come from.
The residents have accused ward councillor Simphiwe Tyukana (ANC) of failing to secure basic services.
City faces host of challenges in diverse Region B
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The leadership of the City of Johannesburg attended the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) meeting at Westbury Hall in Region B on 21 April 2021.
In attendance was the Executive Mayor, Cllr Geoffrey Makhubo, who was accompanied by the Speaker of Council, Cllr Nonceba Molwele, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Development Planning Cllr Thapelo Amad and the Regional Director Mohau Ntheli.
Region B is one of the most diverse places in the City and encompasses all races and religion. It is also characterised by the glaring difference in socio-economic conditions between the rich and the poor. This diversity makes the challenges faced in Region B to be widely varying.