Quite a few reports in the DD recently have shown just how out of touch with reality the executive of Buffalo City Metro is.
Princess Faku, the ANC’s Dr WB Rubusana regional chair, was installed as mayor in March 2023 in a palace coup to get rid of Xola Pakati and though she was expected to have the ability to run the metro, she gets nothing done without taking on deployed people.
And are these deployed people up to the job? Based on how the city is falling apart, I have to say no.
They are just aligned to her, as opposed to the party’s secretary in the region, Antonio Carels.
You take your life into your own hands every time you take to the streets as traffic services do not exist for those who drive, like they are on a race track.
And then there are the potholes, which simply get worse instead of repaired.
Then, the BCM executive is out and about in Mdantsane giving the message that you must pay your rates, but you must also take advantage of schemes to have your rates written off.
The millions of rands written off for businesses such as Hemingways Mall show just how unfair this is.
Mayor Faku invites us to beat her up when she fails to deliver— but only on what she has promised today (“Faku Woos Voters as Campaigning Starts in Two BCM Wards ”, DD Sep 13; “Hold Us to Our Promises, Faku TellsFrustrated Residents”, DD Sep 11).
On all the other things she fails at — the NU2 swimming pool, RDP housing, crime — she will just seek an interdict from the court to avoid having to answer difficult questions.
She seems to be misguided into believing that, because her name is Princess, she is royalty, and that somehow this gives her a right not to address the problems of the people she is supposed to serve.
Nothing will change until there is an alternative.
The residents of Mdantsane will never vote for the DA insufficient numbers because the DA is not interested in the majority, only in their narrow constituency.
Meanwhile over at the alternative, the EFF, one thing is clear: everywhere they are in an executive position there is chaos.
What we need is a party that is not national, not even provincial, but operates only in this metro and puts this metro first.
— Siphiwo Bhengani, Mdantsane
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