Dimbaza, Pholapark, Khayelitsha

Ward Councillors:

Nomfanelo Madonono - 45 Thembisa Marwele - 44 Mthuthuzeli Phakade – 26 Noncedo Xashe - 42

(acknowledgments)

Comrades, I want to say from the onset that I am highly impressed with the huge turnout for today's meeting. This being my first visit to the Dimbaza community in my capacity as Executive Mayor of Buffalo City, I am deeply humbled by this silent ovation, and I am moved to commit myself to give an extra ear to the expressed aspirations of the people of this area.

Perhaps this is the right opportunity to commend you on your wise decision to retain Councillor Sithembiso Tyilo as your Ward Councillor for another term. I am certain that when you took that decision, there were still several outstanding issues that still needed to be done in order to fulfill your developmental needs. But you opted for continuity instead of change.

I also want to compliment you on your choice of incoming Councillor Ndileka Gedze to take forward the development programme for your area. Her youthful enthusiasm gives me hope that we will be experiencing a fresh burst of energy into our efforts to meet the challenges facing this area.

I promise to give both Councillor Tyilo and Councillor Gedze all the support that I can possibly give them in their endeavours to meet your expectations as a community.

I also want to take this opportunity to introduce to you Ward Committee members of the two Wards assembled here today, namely Ward 34 and Ward 35.

In Ward 34 we have the following members:

And in Ward 35 we have the following members:

As Buffalo City, we are constantly engaged in a variety of processes aimed at becoming more responsive to the needs of our communities, and we adopt the view that we must use all the tools at our disposal to understand better what the masses are saying and thinking. This becomes even more important in reaching the majority in our communities who are poor. The proper functioning of our newly-elected Ward Committees will therefore be critical to a healthy local participatory democracy.

It is in this spirit, and building on the solid foundation created by my predecessor, Sindisile Maclean, the first Executive Mayor of Buffalo City, that I and my Mayoral Committee felt it absolutely necessary to engage the people of Buffalo City directly in these Imbizos. [In paying tribute to Comrade Maclean for his sterling contribution, I want also on a personal note to extend our heartfelt sympathies to him and his family for the loss of his mother this past week.

I have always believed that our communities collectively constitute the Municipality's most significant and influential partner in the administration and management of the affairs of our people, and in driving Buffalo City's developmental agenda. Your presence here today shows that you also share and support this principle, and are ready to play your own role in the ongoing reconstruction of our communities. This is a welcome show of commitment on the part of each and every one here, and we salute you.

Our principal mandate as your Municipality is to deliver on community needs and aspirations as articulated by the affected communities themselves. It was with this mandate in mind, when I took office as Executive Mayor in March this year, that I made a solemn pledge to accelerate the rate of development and service delivery.

I would like to believe that we have already taken decisive steps towards making this pledge a reality. During the 18 Imbizos to be held over the next fortnight in our various settlements throughout the municipality, we will be sharing what we have done, as well as many of the positive developments that communities can expect in the next six to eighteen months, that promise in different ways to add substance to our commitment to create a better life for all our people.

Comrades, to embark on a journey, it is vital to know your desired destination. Allow me to reiterate our commitment to the vision towards which Buffalo City has been striving for the past five years: we want a Buffalo City that is "a people-centred place of opportunity where the basic needs of all are met in a safe, healthy and sustainable environment."

This is a noble political goal on which we will not compromise, and that we do not want to believe is unachievable, even in our generation. But how do we translate it in practical ways into the better life that we long for?

Being people-centred, we believe, means that the highest values of ubuntu should be aimed for both within our municipal administration as well as in the way in which the organization services its clients. It implies also the rediscovery of a communal culture characterized by the values of respect, humility, generosity of spirit and mutual support.

It leaves no place for the abuse of women and children in our communities, and it reminds us that we can never turn our backs on the poor and the vulnerable.

For Buffalo City to be a place of opportunity to us means to be a place where all citizens must be free to develop to their full potential, a place into which investors will be keen to plough their money and achieve good returns, a place where those who wish to work don't have to beg, steal or scavenge for bread on the city's refuse dumps.

To prioritise basic needs of people means that we in local government, hand in hand with our colleagues and comrades in the provincial and national spheres, must develop a culture where the social welfare of all, but necessarily and most urgently the poorer and less mobile, is addressed as decisively as possible over as short a time as possible.

Throughout our consultation processes, all communities have repeatedly identified crime and insecurity as one of the most critical of all issues to be addressed. We know that safety will continue to be elusive while people remain desperate, and that none of us can be secure if any one of us is hungry, homeless or hopeless.

Dimbaza and its surrounding areas are characterized by a serious bout of poverty. I am fully mindful of the hardship and suffering that have been brought to bear on this community because of, amongst other things, the sudden closure of the majority factories in this area.

Nevertheless Buffalo City Municipality finds it very hard to blame those industrial bosses for pulling out of Dimbaza so unceremoniously. We would rather put the blame on bad planning on the part of the previous government, unsustainable economic policies, and a fruitless marketing exercise to bluff the outside world into believing that separate development was working when in fact it was a dismal failure.

In my speech at the launch of these imbizos in Mdantsane on Saturday I made mention of the fact that Buffalo City Municipality is currently in consultation with economic development stakeholders in the Province to try and resuscitate both the Dimbaza and the Fort Jackson industrial areas. We are doing this as one of our desperate yet committed attempts to find measures to counteract the progress of poverty amongst the people of this area.

The Municipality's Local Economic development Department is in the process of refurbishing the old Small Business complex behind this hall to provide a conducive working environment for manufacturers of arts and culture ware and other small products for the tourist and domestic market.

We have not forgotten Dimbaza's rich history in the struggle for the liberation of this country. The Municipality has decided to use this history to promote tourism and create job opportunities here in Dimbaza.

Work has already begun on clearing the two sites for the Dimbaza Wall of Fame and the Garden of Remembrance which are to be built at a joint cost of R9 million provided by our partners the Department of Environment and Tourism.

We are already training tourist guides, soil conservationists and events managers to make sure that our multi-pronged plan of developing the local tourism industry, capacitating our people, and creating job opportunities does not collapse because of lack of skills.

I was speaking in Mzintshane earlier today, where I made mention of the fact that one of our biggest challenges in our service delivery and development programme for Buffalo City is the scarcity of funds.

I want to repeat the promise I made to the Mzintshane audience, namely that the Municipality has not resigned itself to this terrible fate. We are sensitive to the needs of our people, and we continue to search for innovative ways to improve our revenue base so that we can be able to fulfill our mandate to better the lives of our people.

Housing remains a burning issue amongst all our communities, and this area is no exception. The growing number of shacks is a clearer indicator to us of the drastic measures that we need to address the situation.

In the past financial year we made available a sum of R2 327 707 to complete the Dimbaza Phase Two housing project. We know this is still not enough, hence we are at pains to find more money for housing. This area will definitely benefit from the 13600 units that we aim to build within the next three years.

Our goal is not simply to provide roofs above the people's heads, but to develop healthy and sustainable human settlements that have all the basic services like water, electricity and refuse removal; settlements that have all the necessary social amenities like clinics, schools, recreational and shopping facilities close by.

I am also happy to announce that the moratorium that was placed on building new houses will be lifted some time this month, and that we as the Municipality have already been granted full accreditation to drive the delivery of housing at a local level.

We have in the past year spent R1 908 830 refurbishing the water reticulation infrastructure in a wide area within the King William's Town region of Buffalo City, including Dimbaza. This was necessitated by reports emanating from Dimbaza about unreliable water supply caused by leaking mains and an overload on the capacity of the ageing pipes.

We spent a further R100 000 upgrading the sanitation system in this area, and a further R15 290 on a health promotion programme.

We put aside R600 00 for upgrading the Dimbaza Stadium, refurbishing the cricket nets, and erecting netball courts within the facility.

I am proud to announce that indigent people living in this area continue to benefit from the Municipality's indigent subsidy scheme. Presently, 3 286 local indigent people are on the Municipality's data base, each receiving an average subsidy of R206 per month on service charges. Dimbaza alone currently accounts for R8 122 992 of the Municipality's annual budget for indigent subsidies.

Comrades, Buffalo City Municipality continues to plan for the ongoing development of Dimbaza and its surrounding areas, and I want to assure you that we will continue to do all that we can within our limited resources to respond to your needs.

We take the fight against HIV/AIDS seriously. Two years ago the Municipality started inter-sectoral HIV/AIDS forums to counteract fragmented service-provision and lack of information on the prevalence and impact of HIV/AIDS on the community.

In conclusion, I do not want to boast that we have successfully met your expectations. All I can say right now is that we are trying our best, and that we will continue to look for more and sustainable ways of developing both the people and the infrastructure of Dimbaza and its surrounding areas.

Which is why we are here today; to share your needs with you; to discuss together ways and means of unlocking bottlenecks that may occur here and there; and to mutually find or develop a way forward for the systematic development of your area.

I thank you.

ENDS.

Zintle Peter
EXECUTIVE MAYOR
1st November 2006.