Tshwane mayor defends Afriforum partnership

The City of Tshwane says lobby group AfriForum will use its resources to assist the municipality in tackling service delivery challenges. 

Mayoral spokesperson Sipho Stuurman said the partnership does not give AfriForum any powers but only formalises their working relationship.  

On Monday, the organisation and the metro signed a five-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) which aims to address basic municipal services.

The partnership comes after mayor Cilliers Brink’s announcement in December of a community upliftment precinct initiative to enable communities, residents and the private sector to work with the city in improving service delivery.

According to the organisation and the metro, the focus would be on the protection and safeguarding of infrastructure. AfriForum would also be assisting with cutting grass and repairing potholes among other things. 

“The reality is that we cannot do it all as government and so we welcome all groups that want to help us build a better city for our residents; however, to do so it’s important that we formalise our working relationship,” said Stuurman. 

The MOU states that all work to be committed to by the organisation needs to be done according to the standards and policies of the city.

It also lists the agreed projects and initiatives which include grass cutting, refuse removal, alien plant removal and identification of illegal dumping sites among other things.

In terms of safeguarding infrastructure, Stuurman said AfriForum has previously provided private security to safeguard city substations to prevent cable theft.

“Many private securities do this especially during load shedding when we previously experienced high levels of cable theft. Whenever they [Afriforum] find an issue to be fixed in the community, they would approach the city and say we found this matter that needs to be fixed. The city and the organisation would then work out a way forward.”

He said they were formalising the relationship with AfriForum because in the past there were incidences where Tshwane metro cops would stop the organisation from fixing potholes.

“...now we are streamlining and ensuring that whenever there is assistance from AfriForum side then they follow the necessary rules and regulations within the City of Tshwane so that is how this works. It is community groups that have the resources and the will and desire to help the City of Tshwane. They can come on board and use their resources but they have to work with us and inform us and follow our rules and regulations.”

The EFF in Tshwane has rejected the partnership.

chabalalaj@sowetan.co.za