Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng leader Solly Msimanga criticised President Cyril Ramaphosa’s “delayed move” in calling for the rejuvenation of the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), urging him to prioritise persistent and extraordinarily crippling water shortages and electricity outages.

The party has sent an open letter and a plan to “rescue the city” to Ramaphosa, in which Msimanga says it is disappointing that Ramaphosa’s motivation to intervene in Johannesburg and Gauteng more generally is the G20 meetings and not the longstanding issues faced by the citizenry.

The CoJ will be hosting the G20 Leaders’ Summit in November.

“It is a pity that it took the hosting of the G20, where you want to present a city in tiptop shape to the world, to move you to action. Maybe for that reason we should be thankful that Johannesburg is hosting the G20 so that the citizens of this wonderful city can finally benefit from service delivery they deserve,” he said.

Msimanga noted that the residents of Gauteng had been “lamenting the visible degradation” of the province for the last 25 years.

“…something you surely should have noticed since your seat of government as well as your party’s head office is situated here,” he said to Ramaphosa.

Earlier this month, Ramaphosa announced that government was proposing the establishment of a Presidential Johannesburg Working Group to accelerate service delivery, stabilise the city’s finances and operations, and enable economic growth and job creation.

Msimanga believes the intervention points to failure by the Johannesburg municipality and the provincial government.

He said the DA wanted the Working Group to consult the residents of Johannesburg and urged transparent oversight mechanisms in all three legislative spheres to ensure that the interventions were managed in accordance with corporate governance principles.

He also noted that automatic criminal charges must be laid against anyone found to have circumvented supply chain processes and said all interventions must seek to generate sustainable solutions to the problems currently faced by the residents of Johannesburg.

The DA said it would be launching a portal for the residents of Gauteng to list areas where the Presidential Working Group should intervene in the province.

WATER SHORTAGES

The DA proposed upgrading electrical hardware at Joburg Water pumping stations and water towers, as well as generators to be used in the event of power outages.

The party wants a comprehensive audit of indigent households and a ring-fenced budget for the audit, as well as investment in water infrastructure using water grants and implementation of the National Treasury directive to ring-fence allocated water revenue.

Msimanga said Joburg Water should play a bigger role in the revenue value chain - overseeing data inputs, the reading of meters and managing large water consumers and key accounts.

The DA is also proposing the development of an integrated metering system to detect water losses across the City, and the fast-tracking of the requisite upgrades of water reservoirs, with priority given to leaking ones.

ELECTRICITY

The party is also calling on the Working Group to develop an integrated metering system to detect losses coming into the City Power grid, and suggested agreements with Eskom to reduce the debt that the State entity claims to be R4.9-billion, although the amount has been disputed by the municipality.

The DA wants alternative power acquisition programmes to mitigate loadshedding, introduced by former mayor Mpho Phalatse to be followed through.

It wants the implementation of a massive cable theft and illegal connections strategy.