| UNITE AND FIGHT,SAVE OUR CITIES AND TOWNS 2011 |
| Ward Funding: |
- More funding for all Wards.
- Currently, previously disadvantaged communities receive 5 times more funding for bus shelters, pavements, side- walks etc.
- More patrol vehicles.
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| Indigent Policy: |
- Address poverty and inequality by increasing free basic services (FBS) eg. limited but free amounts of lights and water,poverty and crime
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| Corruption: |
- Dissolve councils that have been infested with corruption eg. Ethekweni, Msunduzi etc.
- Refrain from in-house commissions set up by the Province.
- Use law enforcement agencies eg. Hawks
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| Tenderpreneurship: |
- Enforce MFMA
- Section 36 must not be abused to give Jobs to pals and relatives.
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| Political Authority: |
- Politicians must practice good governance principles
- Executive Authority must be supreme Multi-Party decision-makers
- Full councils must make final decisions.
- Decisions must never be hideously taken in ruling party Caucuses or political offices to prevent corruption.
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| Job Creation:
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- Municipalities should be restructured.
- Vacancies should be filled on merit for efficient functioning.
- CLO’S: – or community liason officers should be elected by a local community and not be based on nepotism or political
affiliation.
- CLO’s should have the necessary skills to manage relations between the committee and council.
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LED:
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- Local Economic Development means taking SMME training to every single township annually and relaxing home business and street-vending by-laws.
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| Reviving Small Towns: |
- Spatial Development should take place in smaller,inland towns.
- The re-opening of mining factories, in the coal-rim
- Towns should be reexamined with proper research into a sustainable plan for job creation and LED’s.
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| Rural Repopulation: |
- This is compulsory with funding injected to develop rural areas.
- Prevents slums developing in cities and towns.
- Jobs would be created rurally.
- Crime and grime in big cities would decrease.
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| Informal Settlements: |
- Cause is, political manipulation pre-elections, hence Cannot be cleared as per the Slum –Clearance Act.
Act needs to have a dedicated time line to ensure housing budget is spent and is not sent back to National Treasury due to inefficiency.
(currently KZN has lost + R200m housing Grant)
- Political Will is needed to end this.
- Social and health problems in local areas are due to unplanned settlements.
- Anti-Land Invasion unit in Province and protection
- Services in the municipalities needs to be resourced with manpower to prevent informal settlements from mushrooming.
- Political interference must stop, dictating the work of officials.
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| Housing: |
- Registers should be established in each municipality for housing Needs.
- Social workers and health workers locally should do home visits to verify housing needs.
- Fiscal dumping to renovate flats, hostels and bad workmanship should stop.
- Title-Deeds transfers are long overdue as people have paid more than the cost of their rental schemes already.
- People need ownership now and will maintain their own homes,better.
- Monies should be used to build new low cost house/flats as per demand.
- Under expenditure of that National Housing Grant by the Minister should not be tolerated eg. KZN has returned + R200
million unused housing money.
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| IDP’s and Land Use: |
- Infill housing iniated in an unplanned manner.
- Housing congestion causes “ghettos”.
- Public participation must take place before development decisions
- “White-elephant” infrastructure eg Ushaka Marine World, Moses Mabida Stadium, ICC at rate-payers expense must stop.
- PSubsistence- farming and gardening must be planned in consultation with local communities to create jobs.
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| Rates: |
- Properties need to be revalued on an ongoing basis, due to disputes.
- Concessions have to include single mothers, age factor, disabilities and income.
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| Religious Sites: |
- IDP’s should reserve sites for religious use in all residential areas.
- Monotorium on religious sites in Ethekwini must be removed.
- Phase 2 of coastal management plan must make provisions for designated use by faith based organisations for religious sites that pray to the sea.
- Crematoriums should be increased in all areas.
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| Land Tenure Act: |
- Amendments affects farming communities and needs to be reviewed before farming becomes unsustainable and local Economic growth and job creation weakens.
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| Public Transport: |
- Re-introduce local bus routes and enter public – private Partnerships.
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| Electoral Transformation: |
- Mayors should be directly elected by the citizens of a Town/City.
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| Ward Committees: |
- Need to be elected from the general skills base of the Ward.
- Dissolve all politically hijacked committees for proper service delivery post May 18th 2011.
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| CPF: |
- Community Police Forums should be apolitical persons concerned about ridding areas of crime.
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| Laws: |
- Municipal laws: The MFMA should be strengthened to enforce financial accountability.
- Outdated by-laws which hindered progress should be removed or relaxed.
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| By-Laws: |
- Stricter by-laws for liquor and littering/pollution; for social and environmental safety.
- Relaxed by-laws for local economic development (LED) eg. small business eg. street venders and house businesses eg. panel beaters or seamstresses.
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| Metro Police: |
- The crime-prevention units need to be based in local offices to increase civilian policing and narrow response times to prevent crime.
- Increase Metro Police Officers.
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| Clinics: |
- Most local clinics need better managers, more nurses, equipment and medicines.
- Clinic Committees need training and should be apolitical.
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| Public Servants: |
- Abolish Affirmative action and unfair Employment Equity Law.
- Abolish deployment of comrades by ruling party.
- Weed out nepotism, family and friends.
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| Public-Private Partnership (PPP): |
- When councils lack skills, and infrastructure,instead of paying high-charging consultants.
- PPP’s are cost saving.
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| Tax Breaks: |
- Should be given to home-industries, SMMES with flexible by-laws.
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| Billing Systems and Revenue Management System (RMS): |
- All municipalities have to invest in modern IT systems to effectively and correctly bill rate-payers in order to collect monies in order to run cities and towns.
- Skilled personnel need to operate computers to prevent human errors, hence non-payment.
- IT contracts need to go to companies on merit of best world practice and not to incapable companies (Tenderpreneurship) that act as agents.
- Huge Losses are incurred due to corruption in this way.
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| Infrastructure: |
- Roads, bridges, storm-water drainage, public sanitation and signage needs to be focal for decreasing road deaths, natural-disaster damages, deaths and loss of animals and personal property of rate-payers.
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| Body Corporates: |
- A new, private management body for privately owned flats should be a co-ordinated process.
- First-time home owners need to be trained on how to manage meetings, constitute the body corporate and run
the building operationally , daily.
- The hijacking and the bullying tactics used by Body Corporates managers should be outlawed and residents
should be given freedom to associate, manage their finances with full accountability.
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| Climate Change: |
- Establish “Green Cities, Towns” Project eg. renewable energy resources, green buildings, open spaces, enforce
EIA’s save water, electricity and designate demoss zones.
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| Coastal Management Plan: |
- Phase two to include safety planning for Tsunamis and other natural disasters when developing coastlines.
- Needs of all faith- based organisation must be respected.
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| Beach Safety: |
- Sentinels should be established with beach patrols to safeguard our visitors and tourists.
- More Life-guards should be visible along the beaches.
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| Parks and Gardens: |
- Greening our cities and towns should be a priority in view of climate change.
- This investment reduces carbon emissions and over heating the cities.
- Play lots for children should be saved and mandatory in the IDP’s.
- Grass-cutting cycle should be increased from 3 times a year to 9 times annually.
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