The Provincial MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Xolile Nqatha, has conceded that the ANC-led Chris Hani District Municipality (CHDM) is simply not coping with providing its residents with adequate water and sanitation. The Democratic Alliance has been relentlessly driving the issue of collapsed sanitation infrastructure and Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) in the CHDM, which has resulted in ongoing sewage spills flowing through streets and into fresh …
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DA ramps up fight against corruption with Tender Watch
August 26th, 2021
The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape Legislature has ramped up the fight against the rampant corruption in the province, with the launch of a new hotline that will enable whistleblowers to provide tipoffs that will be followed up and acted on. Today I was accompanied by the DA Leader in the Eastern Cape Legislature, Bobby Stevenson, MPL, and DA EC Shadow MEC for Finance, Retief Odendaal, MPL, in launching …
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Eastern Cape Municipalities drop the tourism ball
August 5th, 2021
Key tourism projects in the Eastern Cape, meant to stimulate tourism-related industries and bring investment to local municipalities, have been so neglected that there is now no hope that they will meet their intended objectives without serious additional funding. Money is being squandered with no accountability! So bad is the state of some of these projects, that the Eastern Cape MEC for COGTA, Xolile Nqatha, has now agreed to conduct …
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The actions of DA provincial leader and corruption busting mayor, Nqaba Bhanga, in tackling irregularities in the governance of Nelson Mandela Bay show residents that he is committed to cleaning out the rot. This was revealed at Mayor Bhanga’s press conference today, which details the steps taken to deal with the rot in Nelson Mandela Bay. This is the difference between the Democratic Alliance, and the African National Congress. The …
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District Development experiment fails spectacularly as OR Tambo District Municipality funds cut
July 9th, 2021
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s District Development experiment has been dealt another devastating blow after National Treasury announced they will not be releasing the OR Tambo District Municipality’s (ORTDM) equitable share. The ORTDM was launched as the pilot site for Government’s District Development model, in 2019, and despite the heaps of praise for the model from the national government, it has been a failed experiment. You cannot change the form without dealing …
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The latest Auditor-General report on municipal finances for the 2019/20 financial year shows that the Local Government structures in the Eastern Cape are on the brink of collapse. In light of these damning results, the Democratic Alliance once again challenges the Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, and the MEC of CoGTA, Xolile Nqata, to take action. The DA has repeatedly called on the provincial government to make use of the powers granted …
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The Eastern Cape Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, must do the right thing and dissolve the Makana Municipality with immediate effect. Stop protecting your cadres of chaos and implement the court judgement. The violent protests ripping through the heart of Makhanda are the direct result of the provincial executive putting their incompetent ANC-deployed cadres ahead of the people. All of this could have been avoided two years ago, had the Premier and …
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Water Strategy Master Plan needed for Eastern Cape
May 19th, 2021 The Eastern Cape is in dire need of a Water Strategy Master Plan to address the short, medium and long-term strategies for water security to the province’s towns and cities. The lack of action by the ANC government has broken the province. Poor maintenance and no new bulk infrastructure, together with no master plan to augment water supplies, has devastated the Eastern Cape. Water is our most valuable resource, there …
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No progress made in ‘captured’ Amathole District Municipality
April 23rd, 2021 Three months of interventions from the provincial government have failed to impact the lives of the people of the Amatole District Municipality, with taps running dry and a municipality that is still on the verge of collapse. In January, Eastern Cape MEC of COGTA, Xolile Nqatha, invoked Section 139 (5) (a) of the Constitution with much fanfare, supposedly coming to the rescue of the municipality that had announced they would …
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Boschberg ‘Mountain of Dreams’ now ‘Mountain of Nightmares’
February 11th, 2021
The R 11.7 million Boschberg ‘Mountain of Dreams’ tourism hub in Somerset East could now be described as a ‘Mountain of Nightmares’ as this tourism hub, developed to grow the local economy, lies in ruins. Identified as a key development project for the Blue Crane Development Agency, which has since been disbanded, the Boschberg Tourism Hub was completed in 2015, but is now nothing more than an abandoned pile of …
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