SPEECH BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT AND SECRETARY-GENERAL
20 May 2021
PREMIER AND MEC WERE WARNED LAST YEAR ABOUT CITY OF CAPE TOWN’S FOOD RELIEF SCHEME ABUSE
It is astounding that members of the DA refer to the City of Cape Town’s good governance and food relief schemes on the same day that the Hawks arrest a DA councillor in connection with a fraud and money laundering scheme involving city food relief funds.
I alerted the Premier and the MEC for Local Government to allegations of abuse of the City of Cape Town’s food relief scheme one year ago. But they failed to take firm steps, or any steps.
When the AG released his last municipal audit results report he said the focus should be on “how firm steps are going to be taken to restore the integrity of these institutions and place them in a position to manage their finances towards the achievement of citizens’ needs”.
This is an important message in two respects:
One, in this Province we have an MEC responsible for local government who has demonstrated over and over again that he is not prepared to take “firm steps” if this doesn’t align with the interests of his party.
In fact the MEC was found to have undermined the integrity of the George Municipality when he interfered, on behalf of the DA, in the appointment of a senior manager.
And, the MEC was not prepared to take firm steps when his own Mayor of Oudtshoorn was reporting corruption and maladministration – the MEC protected the MM, fired the Mayor and tried to convince the DA caucus to suggest to him that he places the municipality under his administration.
And, as we have observed lately the MEC is permitting the City of Cape Town to refuse to answer questions about good governance.
The correlation between a failure of integrity and leadership is plain for all to see with these three municipalities being the biggest contributors to irregular expenditure:
- City of Cape Town – R950 million
- George – R621 million
- Oudtshoorn – R170 million
ENDS…