The Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality is counting on the re-election of its mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza as ANC chairperson at the party’s recent regional conference to maintain stability and recover from its R2 billion revenue shortfall.

Xhakaza was returned at last month’s regional conference, where he defeated former ANC Ekurhuleni treasurer Sello Sekhokho to the position of chairperson.

The conference was also unsuccessfully challenged at the Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg by a group of disgruntled ANC members.

On Wednesday, Xhakaza described his re-election as the most critical enabler of progress and ensuring the municipality’s political stability.

“Following the recent ANC regional conference, where I was entrusted with the additional responsibility of serving as the regional chairperson, we have ushered in a new era of unified and decisive leadership for Ekurhuleni,” he said.

According to Xhakaza, the outcome of the conference resolved what potentially could have been a long-standing challenge of two centres of power within the ANC, which would have led to a coalition governing the municipality.

He claimed had he not succeeded this would have created political instability and threatened the continuity of governance.

“With the political and administrative leadership now fully aligned, the risk of paralysis or the premature removal of a mayor has been firmly addressed,” added Xhakaza.

At the height of the ANC’s electoral prowess, two centres of power meant a situation where the party leader nationally, provincially or regionally was not president, premier or mayor, creating a difficult situation to manage for the individual holding state power.

Xhakaza said when his administration took over in April last year following the ousting of African Independent Congress councillor Sivuyile Ngodwana, it inherited a substantial and complex challenge within its energy meter management, which has a historical revenue shortfall amounting to about R2.1bn.

He blamed mismanagement, stemming from inaccuracies and gaps in the meter reading and billing environment that had occurred from the abrupt takeover of the function by the municipality’s information and communication technology department.

“We are turning these bills into collected revenue that can be ploughed back into service delivery. So far, we have collected over R365 million from these historical accounts,” Xhakaza said.

Additionally, he said out of a total identified value of about R2.1bn, Ekurhuleni has to date successfully billed nearly R1.4bn and that there is a further R761m in the process of being billed, following the necessary dispute and agreement period afforded to customers.

Xhakaza undertook that the municipality will aggressively embark on a city-wide collection campaign aimed at collecting the outstanding R1bn, which has already been billed.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za

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