Pretoria will no longer host the numerous festivities and parties which cost taxpayers millions of rand annually if Democratic Alliance mayoral candidate Solly Msimanga gets his way.
“If I’m elected, one of the things I want to do is to make sure that there a mayoral scholarships that we establish. We are not going to have parties in Tshwane. That is one of the things. There is not going to be inauguration parties, April 27 parties, or May 1 rallies,” Msimanga told Tshwane University of Technology students on Friday.
“We are not going to do that. We take that money and put it into a fund. That is the only way we are going to break the legacy of apartheid; when we empower the people coming from that disadvantaged era they have to be up-skilled and get absorbed into the job market so that they can work for their families.”
Msimanga said among his many other initiatives he would establish a database for all students learning or living within the Tshwane metro.
He told the students that some ambassadors had informed him that some foreign companies did not want to invest in Tshwane because of rampant corruption.
“They [ambassadors] were telling me that they do have people that want to come and engage South Africa, particularly Pretoria, but they are not doing that. The companies are saying ‘if I have to be paying bribes then I’m not interested’,” said Msimanga.
He said security concerns among students topped his agenda.
“I do not want metro police doing fundraising. You find the metro police currently standing under bushes, stopping taxis and buses. I want metro police that will be able to patrol the vicinity of the campuses. I want metro police to patrol where you are staying, playing sport, and having fun. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard of students who have been robbed of their laptops, ipads, cellphones, and shoes.”
Msimanga said young people told him “they are tired of Sputla’s [Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa’s nickname] government of lies”.
The DA hopes to oust the African National Congress in Tshwane in the tightly-contested August 3 local government elections.
Source: enca
