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The DA in Rand West Local Municipality notes with concern the catastrophic failure of the local government to ensure the municipality has a service delivery fleet at its disposal following the coming into force of a suspended court order.

In 2022, the South Gauteng Division of the High Court issued an order in terms of which the Rand West Local Municipality was to meet a financial obligation through monthly payments. The making of these payments kept in suspension for six months an attachment order enabling the sheriff to take possession of the vehicles comprising the municipal fleet. The suspension period of six months ran from 12 August 2022 to 12 February 2023.

Throughout this period, the Rand West City Local Municipality seemingly honoured its obligations in terms of the court order, yet failed to understand the implications of the High Court’s judgment.

Payment of the monthly instalments were, in terms of the High Court decision in 2022, never intended to secure use of the vehicles of the municipal fleet beyond the six-month period, but only ensured the keeping in suspension of the order of attachment for the six months between August 2022 and February 2023. The payments therefore bought the Municipality six months during which it bore a responsibility to make alternative plans for a municipal fleet to be available at the coming into force of the attachment order on 12 February 2023.

Following the expiration of the six-month suspension period on 12 February 2023, in accordance with the court order, the sheriff proceeded to attach the vehicles of the municipal fleet. As the Rand West City Local Municipality failed to ensure availability of an alternative service-delivery fleet, the Municipality is now left without any service-delivery vehicles.

Put simply: the Rand West City Local Municipality had six months to make sure a fleet of municipal vehicles were available from 12 February onwards to carry on service delivery, yet simply failed to do so.

Rand West City Local Municipality therefore is currently completely without any municipal vehicles due to gross government incompetence.

The consequences of this failure by the local government of the ANC, PA, RPP, AIC, and IFP is that service delivery in Rand West City Local Municipality will now cease in totality. Refuse cannot be collected, electrical faults cannot be fixed, potholes cannot be attended to, and water leakages cannot be repaired. The entire service delivery capacity of the Municipality is now, due to governmental incompetence, at a complete standstill.

The scale of this failure will make life for residents even worse amidst the challenges of the current economic climate – an unconscionable violation of the dignity of the people of Rand West City.

The ANC, PA, and other parties propping up the coalition of corruption, are incapable of governing with any level of competence or any understanding of their duty to residents who depend on government services.

At best, residents can hope for a resumption of service delivery by Friday, but with such incompetence as shown by the local government, there can be no guarantee even of this.

The choice facing our country is made starker by every failure of the coalition of corruption: the DA way or the ANC-PA way, growth or decline, delivery or corruption.

The DA in Rand West City Local Municipality calls on the Executive Mayor to urgently explain how this avoidable crisis came about and how the implications of the High Court judgment were so spectacularly misunderstood by the Municipality. We will apply maximal pressure on the ANC-PA coalition of corruption to solve this crisis of their own making. We will not stop fighting for services to be delivered to residents and their human dignity respected.

Issued by Cllr Balderic Dreyer - DA Caucus Whip Rand West City