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How will The UDM fix issues in 702 land ? · Drive with John Perlman

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  Speaker 1: Your rates, your services, your reality. Follow the local government
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  Speaker 1: elections on 702 Cape Talk and EWN.co.za.
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  Speaker 2: 17 minutes past four. One of the ways in which
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  Speaker 2: we are covering the local government elections is... Talking to
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  Speaker 2: political parties, different ones each day, about what they plan
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  Speaker 2: to do about some key issues. We're focusing in, in particular,
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  Speaker 2: on municipal finance, on water and electricity, and then some
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  Speaker 2: of those other things that are part of the conversation
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  Speaker 2: very much so today. A sense that our cities and
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  Speaker 2: towns are falling apart, potholes, things not being fixed, litter everywhere,
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  Speaker 2: and so on. Today, it's the turn of the UDM,
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  Speaker 2: the United Democratic Movement. And for their perspective, we're joined
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  Speaker 2: now by Yongama Zigebe, who is the UDM's mayoral candidate
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  Speaker 2: for the city of Johannesburg. A very good afternoon to you,
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  Speaker 2: Yongama Zigebe, and thanks very much for giving us your time.
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  Speaker 3: Good afternoon to you, John, and good afternoon to your listeners,
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  Speaker 3: and thank you for having us to your show today.
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  Speaker 2: So one of the things you talk about is the
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  Speaker 2: importance of clean governance, financial discipline, and you talk about
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  Speaker 2: the ways in which you'll achieve that. One of the
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  Speaker 2: things you say you'll prioritize is transparent budgeting. What exactly
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  Speaker 2: is that?
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  Speaker 3: Transparent budgeting is a budget that speaks to the people
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  Speaker 3: and that has been adopted by the people. We need
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  Speaker 3: to be able to publish our budget priorities And the
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  Speaker 3: people need to have a say and scrutinize those particular
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  Speaker 3: budgets before they go into spending. The city of Johannesburg
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  Speaker 3: right now, I don't think many people know that in
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  Speaker 3: the current financial year, which is 2026, 2027, it sits
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  Speaker 3: at 97.1 billion. And all these other 8.8 billion in
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  Speaker 3: annual capital are spending at just above 7.5 billion annually.
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  Speaker 3: which is for maintenance and repairs. And our people do
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  Speaker 3: not see those maintenance and repairs because they do not
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  Speaker 3: know what goes into these particular departments and who is
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  Speaker 3: responsible for what. So we need to be able to
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  Speaker 3: have that live dashboard that goes to our people on
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  Speaker 3: a weekly basis that is able to say this is
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  Speaker 3: how much we spend in this particular street. These are
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  Speaker 3: the portals that we have. dealt with and refurbished and
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  Speaker 3: so on. These are the links that we've dealt with
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  Speaker 3: and people should see where the money is going, where
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  Speaker 3: is it coming from and how it is spent.
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  Speaker 2: What that sounds like to me, with respect, Mr. Zigebe,
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  Speaker 2: is a massive operation by government to communicate with us,
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  Speaker 2: potentially at the expense of actually getting things done. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it's one thing to say, well, the people should make
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  Speaker 2: decisions about the budget, but that's why you've been elected.
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  Speaker 2: That's why you're in governance, I guess. that we need
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  Speaker 2: to know how you're spending the money. But surely this
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  Speaker 2: level of daily and weekly involvement from the citizenry, most
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  Speaker 2: of whom will have other things on their mind and
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  Speaker 2: the rest of them will spend time disagreeing amongst themselves
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  Speaker 2: about what the money should be spent in. Surely once
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  Speaker 2: you are elected, it's your job to govern and do
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  Speaker 2: it properly rather than spend all this time communicating with us.
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  Speaker 3: I think we are in this situation right now because
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  Speaker 3: we do not communicate with our people. And we're taking
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  Speaker 3: decisions behind the backs of our people. And having to
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  Speaker 3: communicate and over-communicate and over-consult with our people does not
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  Speaker 3: mean that the job would not be getting done. People
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  Speaker 3: would complain, but with the moment they see that there's
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  Speaker 3: a movement in their streets, there's movement with services and
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  Speaker 3: there's delivery where they need it the most, they are
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  Speaker 3: going to be a part of making sure that Johannesburg works.
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  Speaker 3: Because if we don't communicate with them on the other side,
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  Speaker 3: just because we are in government, then everything has to
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  Speaker 3: go within it. It can't be like that. We are
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  Speaker 3: a people-centred government. and we should be bringing along our people.
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  Speaker 3: Substations are being vandalized because our people are not being
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  Speaker 3: brought into making sure that they own, you know, they
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  Speaker 3: adopt these substations. They do not see the reason why
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  Speaker 3: they should be a part of protecting these substations and
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  Speaker 3: water stations and so on. When they are vandalised, they're
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  Speaker 3: going to complain to say it is vandalised now. It
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  Speaker 3: is a job of the government to do it and
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  Speaker 3: so on. Rightly so. But if we have brought them
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  Speaker 3: into the conversation, into the budgeting, into their spending and
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  Speaker 3: saying this is what is done, please, once that is fixed,
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  Speaker 3: protect it. with policing will be there and so on.
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  Speaker 3: This is what we're putting in place as a government
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  Speaker 3: in order to make sure that the services that we've
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  Speaker 3: delivered are not being vandalised so that we do not
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  Speaker 3: incur more cost on these things. And you tell the
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  Speaker 3: people the cost of maintenance and the cost of having
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  Speaker 3: to repair something that was done, they are going to
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  Speaker 3: buy into that and they are going to govern with
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  Speaker 3: you and they are going to support the government. That
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  Speaker 3: is transparent.
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  Speaker 2: It sounds like an ideal world and made more complicated
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  Speaker 2: by what you highlight in your manifesto, Mr. Zigebe, that
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  Speaker 2: you're likely to be governing as a coalition. So every
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  Speaker 2: party will have their own constituency. I would think that
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  Speaker 2: they're trying to please. But let me ask you again
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  Speaker 2: for greater clarity on a definition. Fair tariffs, rates and levies. What,
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  Speaker 2: in your view, is a fair tariff, rate and levy?
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  Speaker 3: Fair tariffs, if you look at the complaints that we've
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  Speaker 3: been receiving in the city of Johannesburg, you'd remember that
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  Speaker 3: I'm the city councillor in the city of Johannesburg. over
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  Speaker 3: the people that have been charged over what they've been consuming.
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  Speaker 3: Others have been charged lower than that, and it becomes unfair.
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  Speaker 3: People would be paying thousands and thousands of rands for water.
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  Speaker 3: And there's also electricity charges and everything. So we are
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  Speaker 3: saying that what you've used, John, you should pay for
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  Speaker 3: what you've used. And that is fair. And, you know,
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  Speaker 3: I've used so much water and this is the bill
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  Speaker 3: that I'm getting and the bill that I'm going to pay,
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  Speaker 3: which will not be exorbitant more than we end up
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  Speaker 3: paying for people who aren't paying and so on. So
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  Speaker 3: we need to be very fair. to our people, especially
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  Speaker 3: those who have been keeping the municipality going when it
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  Speaker 3: comes to revenue collection and they've been paying. We need
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  Speaker 3: to make sure that we motivate them by giving them
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  Speaker 3: what is due to them, the fair tariffs and the
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  Speaker 3: fair bills that are going on. We can't, every time
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  Speaker 3: when there's a crisis, we increase our tariffs. in the cities,
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  Speaker 3: electricity tariffs, water tariffs, and so on, just because we
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  Speaker 3: want to close a gap that we've created ourselves. So
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  Speaker 3: we need to be fair to our residents who are
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  Speaker 3: paying and motivate those who aren't paying because they've been
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  Speaker 3: unfairly charged for services to come back into the system
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  Speaker 3: and be.
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  Speaker 1: Able to pay.
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  Speaker 3: But also we need to protect the indigent in the
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  Speaker 3: process so that the poor people be protected and those
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  Speaker 3: who are able to pay, be able to pay our
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  Speaker 3: tariffs as a government. So that is what we mean
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  Speaker 3: by fair tariffs.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: And because I think that is going to help us,
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  Speaker 3: you know, change the trajectory within what our finances are.
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  Speaker 2: Yongama Zigebe, thank you. Representing the UDM, he is mayoral
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  Speaker 2: candidate for the city of Johannesburg. We will have more
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  Speaker 2: conversations with more political parties in the day to come.
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  Speaker 2: 25 minutes past four.