Local governance experts say some of the service delivery programmes instituted by the ousted Johannesburg multi-party government could be abandoned or relegated.
They say this is among the reasons why communities embark on service delivery protests.
Last week, ANC Johannesburg regional chairperson Dada Morero was elected the mayor of the City of Johannesburg following the ousting of the DA’s Mpho Phalatse through a motion of no confidence vote.
Phalatse has filed papers in the High Court in Johannesburg today to challenge the validity of the council meeting held last Friday where she was ousted through a vote of no confidence.
Last month, the DA-led multiparty coalition briefed the media on the service delivery milestones they had achieved since governing the City of Johannesburg, including those being implemented and planned.
It was announced that 10 informal settlements had been identified for upgrading to help reduce the City’s 500 000 housing demand backlog.
Local governance specialist Dr Tim Maake says in some municipalities where there is a new mayor whatever programmes had been put in place by the ousted administration tend to be marginalised.
“Which simply means that they either get abandoned or they are no longer elevated to the top priority as it were before. So, it may not be immune even in this case, that you might find that some of the programmes that were identified by the previous executive mayor with his mayoral committee on behalf of the council, they will not become priorities. Either they will be relegated to the second, third or so priority.”
For close to 20 years, the informal settlement had been earmarked for upgrading where a low-cost block of flats was to be built.
Last week, former Joburg Human Settlements MMC Mlungisi Mabaso, who is now removed as MMC following the ousting of Phalatse, visited the area where he met with the residents who decried the stalled housing project.
A long-time resident of Slovo Park informal settlement near Coronationville in Johannesburg, Happiness Ngwenya, says he is disappointed that Mabaso is no longer MMC for Human Settlements.
“This does not sit well with me. It means we are going to start afresh whereas we had now made progress. Now that Mlungisi has been removed and someone else will have to come in, it means we have to start from A. It means we are going to have to wait for another 28 years to get RDP houses. This is a disappointment, especially for us residents of SlovoPark. ”
She is not the only one dismayed. 70-year-old Margaret Bayisi is among the first residents of SlovoPark informal settlement. She feels let down by politicians.
“From 1994, we were promised houses when were came here. We were young then. Now, I walk with a stick. We would be happy if we could see progress from those who are coming in. Because it is clear that we will die whilst our children are in the wilderness. We follow this one person disappears, we are watching (and then) they disappear. We don’t know now where we are,” says Ngwenya.
Maake says it is some of the unfulfilled promises that fuel community protests.
“In some cases, communities have a legitimate case because they were promised a project. They were promised that their services will be improved. But when new political representatives come in, the very same projects disappear or become relegated and as a result, service delivery suffers and there is unhappiness within the community.”
A lecturer in the political studies department at Wits University, Dr Thokozani Chilenga-Butao says residents need to ask the new mayor some tough questions.
“The other way is through local councillors, contacting local councillors and saying, we see what is happening with regards to the mayor and our local legislature. We would actually like to find out from you, as our representative, what this means for the programmes that were promised to us.”
Mayor Morero is expected to announce his new Mayoral Committee on Friday.
