A Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Mayoral Candidate for City of Cape Town
28 September 2021
The City of Cape Town’s refusal to implement a 3.5% increase for municipal workers, while senior management costs rose 39% over the past two years, is emblematic of a government of privilege comfortable with the city’s status as among the most unequal on earth.
The City is hardly running out of money – profits from water and electricity sales have increased its savings to more than R19 billion. Instead of using these profits to improve conditions in communities most in need of services, the City prefers to reward fat cat senior officials and DA deployees, such as Mr Craig Kesson, whose salary has increased 49% since 2016/2017 to more than R3m. More than the salary paid to the President. Kesson resigned suddenly and “with immediate effect” yesterday.
Such payments are totally at odds with the city’s claim that it cannot pay workers an extra 3.5% because it is cutting back on its spending in order to put the people first.
I agree that the City should reign in wasteful spending. A good place to start would be to recover the nearly R20m lost to fruitless and wasteful expenditure, besides the R950m in irregular expenditure, recorded in the 2019/2020 financial year. These figures represent a 40-fold increase in fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and a more than 1000-fold increase in irregular expenditure, for the year after Patricia De Lille and I, and a number of our colleagues, resigned as councillors.
Since then, Cape Town budget data indicates, its senior management costs have risen from R25.3 million in 2018/19 to R35.3 million in 2020/21. That’s 39% in two years.
The prevailing economic climate calls for real belt-tightening and waste-cutting.
Frankly, to hear the City’s Executive Deputy Mayor, Ian Neilson, claiming the city’s “resources have been all but depleted over the years”, while the City sits with R19 billion in the bank after ramping up water and electricity charges – and splashes money on fat cats – is repulsive, dishonest spin.
What has really been depleted is the City of Cape Town’s integrity, together with any pretence of concern for its less privileged citizens.
For media enquiries, please contact:
Ms Fiona Furey, GOOD Communications Director: City of Cape Town Mayoral Candidate
Cell: 0722455803
Email: fionaf@forgood.org.za