ActionSA wants to overhaul Johannesburg’s municipal finances, accelerate the replacement of ageing water pipes and improve road maintenance, with a target of repairing potholes within a week by the end of a five-year term.
The party’s National Chairperson, Michael Beaumont, outlined the proposals during an interview on 702 about how political parties plan to address the challenges facing metros ahead of the local government elections.
Beaumont said municipalities should cut wasteful expenditure and redirect funds towards essential services and infrastructure before increasing the financial burden on residents.
He also argued that ActionSA would use its position in coalition negotiations to push for financial reforms and improved service delivery.
ActionSA’s plan to cut wasteful spending
Beaumont said municipalities should first examine their own spending and staffing structures before seeking additional revenue from residents.
He cited the period when Herman Mashaba was Johannesburg mayor, saying R2 billion in wasteful expenditure was redirected towards service delivery and infrastructure priorities.
According to Beaumont, the capital share of the city’s budget allocated to electricity, water and roads increased from 58% to 71% during that period.
He said similar measures could be implemented again, including reviewing staffing structures amid what he described as a growth in upper and middle management.
ActionSA’s manifesto proposes limiting annual municipal rates and tariff increases to the prevailing inflation rate, unless a higher increase is demonstrably necessary to protect essential services.
Beaumont said the party wanted these measures considered before additional money was raised from residents.
He also said ActionSA would only enter coalitions under specific conditions, including financial reforms, service delivery for all residents and efforts to combat corruption.
Johannesburg’s water infrastructure under pressure
Beaumont said the scale of water infrastructure investment required across Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni exceeded R100 billion.
He attributed the need for such investment to years of infrastructure neglect, arguing that delaying maintenance makes repairs increasingly expensive.
He pointed to the replacement of water pipes in Johannesburg as an example of the decline in infrastructure investment.
“When Herman Mashaba was the mayor of Joburg, and I’ll keep saying that because ActionSA doesn’t have to make things up. We’ve actually got leaders who’ve done these things before. 200 kilometres of water pipes were being replaced every year. That figure is now 20 kilometres in the City of Joburg,” Beaumont said.
He argued that repairing and replacing ageing infrastructure earlier would deliver greater returns than allowing problems to worsen.
Beaumont also said municipalities needed to ensure that water, electricity and road networks could accommodate new developments and population growth.
He cited electricity outages in Centurion as an example of what could happen when development increases without a corresponding expansion of supply capacity.
While acknowledging the need for development, he argued that municipalities should not approve projects if they could not meet the resulting infrastructure demand in the short and medium term.
ActionSA’s target for fixing potholes
Beaumont said pothole repairs were often only a temporary solution on roads that had deteriorated to the point where more extensive renewal was necessary.
He said ActionSA wanted municipalities to establish clear service-delivery targets at the beginning of a five-year term and report their progress to residents.
“Right now, the pace of pothole repair is not acceptable. It takes two or three or four months or even longer to get a pothole repaired in some of these municipalities. But in five years’ time, we want to say that it should take no more than a week to get a pothole repaired,” he said.
Beaumont said municipalities would need properly resourced teams and greater internal capacity to meet these targets.
He argued that relying on external contractors at great expense was not the way forward, particularly in municipalities struggling to maintain their infrastructure.
He also highlighted the role of law enforcement and municipal bylaw enforcement in managing unplanned and illegal development, saying municipalities needed to ensure that rules were enforced and violations had consequences.
Beaumont said ActionSA would seek coalition agreements that included commitments to financial reform, service delivery and anti-corruption measures.
He maintained that the party would not join a coalition if other parties were unwilling to agree to its stated conditions.
EWN
