The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Tshwane caucus leader, Godwin Ratikwane says selling the City of Tshwane’s assets is an attempt to bring the municipality on “its knees” and it is not in its best interests.
Ratikwane added that through the disposal of assets, the Democratic Alliance (DA) could be seeking to enrich the elite connected to it and its coalition partners.
Last Month, the City of Tshwane Executive Mayor, Cilliers Brink announced plans to dispose of more than R100 million worth of its assets including the Wonderboom Airport as the Metro battles to keep its finances afloat.
Brink said in their discussion on the assets to be sold as part of their plans to beef up the City’s coffers, the administration has taken a very conservative approach and that estimate came to just over R100 million.
However, the EFF has slammed the plans to sell off assets saying “striping” the city of its assets is not in the interest of residents.
“The EFF in Tshwane rejects the Cape Town based-mayor Cilliers Brink’s attempts to sell the city’s assets namely the Wonderboom Airport and different pieces of land amongst others which are immovable assets that are supposed to be generating income or revenue for the city,” said Ratikwane.
“We believe this is an attempt to bring the city to its knees. We have a situation whereby the DA has realised that it can’t bring any change to Tshwane and they don’t have control over Tshwane. And now they are trying by all means to devalue the City of Tshwane and strip it of all its assets that it currently owns. So that nobody else can have a way of taking the city back to its great height.
“We don’t want a situation where the City doesn’t own assets or the city doesn’t have assets to raise revenue out of. We believe that if they were to lease these particular assets they could still make enough money so that they can run the city,” he added.
Ratikwane said the sale of asset could be used to benefit the elite who are connected to DA and it’s coalition partners.
