ActionSA has slammed the ANC and DA on their decision to vote for salary increases for councillors in the City of Johannesburg when the city teeters on the brink of collapse.
ActionSA caucus leader in Johannesburg Nobunhle Mthembu said the increases would mean an additional amount of R5.5 million per year or R20 000 per councillor.
The vote by the council comes after the gas explosion in Braamfontein on Tuesday, the fire at Usindiso building in Albert street that killed more than 70 people and another gas explosion in Bree Street in July.
During the meeting of the council, the DA and ANC voted in support of the increases, while the EFF and ActionSA rejected it.
Mthembu said the increases were unjustified in the midst of problems facing Johannesburg.
“Firstly, in a city where people die in fires because of failure to enforce by-laws or respond to emergencies, these two parties have seen fit to reward themselves.
“Secondly, it proves how the DA’s purported motion to dissolve the council was always political theatre, while they knew it was never going to succeed,” said Mthembu.
She said that councillors should not be rewarded with salary increases at a time when the residents of Johannesburg are suffering from increases and service delivery failures.
Mthembu raised concerns about the DA wanting to dissolve the municipal council in the name of protecting the city.
"Their councillors would not be voting to increase their salaries into the next financial year. The motion to dissolve the council is nothing but a sleight of hand aimed at distracting Joburg residents from this fact, something which was exposed today," she said.
She said that the DA’s refusal to negotiate a majority to remove mayor Kabelo Gwamanda and install a coalition government of its former partners must be seen for what it is – the tacit support for the continuation of ANC and EFF governance in the city.
Furthermore, she said that they would continue to work to ensure that ActionSA was a home to the residents.
Politics