Gauteng MK Party Spokesperson Abel Tau
Outraged Gauteng MK Party Spokesperson Abel Tau has called upon City of Tshwane Municipality Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya to stop using what he (Tau) has labelled movie-style antics when doing her job as the City’s first citizen.
His statement stems from Dr Moya’s action to lead a team of “Tshwane Ya Tima” Municipality workers which switched off electricity at the Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital earlier this week, this as the Gauteng Department of Health is in a debt of about R1,6 billion regarding failure to pay water and electricity services to the City of Tshwane Municipality in the case of Weskoppies Psychiatric Hospital.
Tau is of the opinion that the Mayor’s action was somewhat inhumane considering the fact that the electricity cut-off at Weskoppies affected mentally-ill patients who are among the most vulnerable members of the community and also compromised the safety of security officers working there.
Tau said it is not like the Department of Health didn’t want to pay up its debt to the City, but that the payment was delayed by the fact that the Health Department was on the brink of its financial year end period and couldn’t deliver the said payment to the City of Tshwane Municipality timeously.
“Anyway, the payment to the City of Tshwane had already been processed at the time Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya arrived at the hospital to switch off electricity at the institution of mental health,” said Tau.
“If the Mayor had exercised caution before stepping over to switch the electricity at the Weskoppies, she would have been informed that the payment had already been processed though it had not yet reflected in the City of Tshwane’s bank account,” lamented Tau.
According to reports attributed to the Department of Health Spokesperson Motaletale Motale, the Health Department has already committed to paying part of the overall debt to the City of Tshwane in due course.
Tau insisted that though an arrangement for payment had been made between the City of Tshwane and the Department of Health, the City of Tshwane dragged its feet before restoring electricity at the mental health facility.
“What is disturbing is that when the Mayor arrived at the hospital there was a management committee meeting in progress at there and she and her team didn’t give any notice but proceeded to switch off the electricity substation that feeds the Weskoppies hospital,” said Tau.
“We strongly condemn the Mayor’s behaviour because this City can’t be run like a TV reality show as there are people’s lives at stake here,” he said.
“The Mayor just descended upon the hospital with her entourage and brazenly cut off electricity movie-style before going away nonchalantly,”
Tau said he doesn’t want to see politicians making videos to show that they are working.
“As much as these video-shooting and movie-style gimmicks might have worked for the Mayor and her administration, they can’t be allowed to continue unabated,” says Tau.
He warned that “the nonsense and grandstanding antics of the City of Tshwane Mayor shall be confronted so as to safeguard the wellbeing of vulnerable mental health patients who need love, care and compassion and MK Party will be on a collision course with the Mayor if she doesn’t desist from her unsavoury behaviour.”
Be that as it may, Dr Nasiphi Moya and her spokesperson Zintle Mahlati refused to respond to Tau’s scathing remarks.