Deputy President Paul Mashatile,who in recent months declared ownership of a palatial R28.9 million home in the affluent Cape Town suburb of Constantia.
Picture: Youtube Screenshot/Hardie Property Graphic: Mihle Mdashe/News24
Deputy President Paul Mashatile criticised the Western Cape’s municipal model,citing inequality,despite President Cyril Ramaphosa’s remarks about its achievements.Mashatile clarified Ramaphosa’s comments,stating that he referred to clean audits,not the DA-led municipality,as a governance ideal.Mashatile,who has a R28.9 million mansion in the exclusive Constantia area,criticised service delivery in the Western Cape’s townships.Constantia resident Deputy President Paul Mashatile highlighted inequality in Cape Town as the reason why the Western Cape’s municipal model is not the best in the country.
But he is not contradicting President Cyril Ramaphosa,he said. According to Mashatile,Ramaphosa was “quoted out of context” when he told ANC councillors last month to look at how DA-governed municipalities are run.
Mashatile was responding to questions in the National Assembly on Thursday.
EFF leader Julius Malema asked “whether he has found that municipalities in the main in the Western Cape offer the best model for municipal governance than elsewhere in the country”.
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This appeared to be an apparent reference to Ramaphosa last month telling a rollcall of ANC councillors that he is pained every time the Auditor-General reports to Cabinet about municipalities and that “those municipalities that do best are not ANC-controlled municipalities – and I can name it here because there is nothing wrong with competition – they are often DA-controlled municipalities”.
Ramaphosa said:
Too many of our municipalities fail to deliver even the most basic services,either due to incapacity or mismanagement.
Mashatile told the National Assembly that Ramaphosa was only referring to the Auditor-General’s reports.
Responding to Malema’s question,which also dealt with other municipal issues,Mashatile said: “The Western Cape municipal model is not the best in the country.
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“Shall I repeat that? I was saying,therefore,the Western Cape municipal model is not the best in the country. As,let me conclude,as it fails to address the legacy of apartheid era spatial segregation.”
He said an optimal municipal model would accommodate all people regardless of their race or colour.
READ | Ramaphosa’s praising of DA-run municipalities echoes in Cabinet,rattling ANC unity
EFF MP Natasha Ntlangwini asked the follow-up question on behalf of her absent “commander-in-chief”.
“Are you disagreeing with what Mr Ramaphosa has said,that the DA,Western Cape,is one of the best models?” she asked.
Mashatile chuckled and said:
The president was quoted out of context.
He said that when Ramaphosa addressed the councillors,he said they must learn from one another.
“He then went on that he came across this information that there are a lot of municipalities,or many municipalities in the Western Cape,that have clean audits. He says ‘go and see what they are doing as well’.
“But what he did not say was that the Western Cape is really the panacea for good governance and service delivery and everything. He was focusing on clean audits.
“He was not saying,well,you know,the Western Cape knows it all.”
READ | Mashatile Unmasked
Mashatile said when he goes to the townships in the Western Cape,he doesn’t see any good governance.
“So it’s one thing to say you’ve got a clean audit,but it is one thing if you are changing the lives of people for the better.”
“But you know,the media has got its own way of reporting,they only focused on this issue,giving the impression that our president was praising the DA. That was not the case.”
DA MP James Lorimer told Mashatile that “if you only stay in upmarket luxury housing,you sometimes take things for granted,and you’re not sure what to look for when you go and assess a poorer area in Khayelitsha”.
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“So when you visit Khayelitsha,look at the electricity,which is supplied by the municipality,not by izinyoka. Look at the taps,where,when you open them,water comes out. There are many tarred roads and there is regular refuse removal,” said Lorimer.
“In fact,Cape Town has the largest provision of free electricity and water for indigent households in the country.”
“Now,the question,Mr Deputy President,you say that the Western Cape is not the best model of municipal governance. Could you let us know which province is?”
Mashatile couldn’t say which province has the best model of municipal governance.
Instead,he said: “Honourable Lorimer,you are quite right. If I go to Camps Bay,water comes out of the tap. In Camps Bay. No problem about that.
When I go to Camps Bay,water comes out of the tap. When I go to Khayelitsha,it’s not the case. That’s the point I’m making.
“And remember,it is not the fact that some of us stay in suburbs,we grew up in townships,and we still have our families there.”
Mashatile said he would not be going to Khayelitsha for the first time if he went there.
“If you go with me to Khayelitsha now and we need to score the DA intervention,I’ll give you zero for the work you are doing there - completely zero.
“Maybe in Camps Bay,I may give you six. But in Khayelitsha,Gugulethu,Bonteheuwel,Nyanga,Mitchells Plein,I give you zero.”
Mashatile didn’t score the exclusive suburb of Constantia,where he has a R28.9 million mansion.
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