ANC Resolves on DA’s recommendations to stop wasteful expenditure at BBC

by Cllr. Bill Rundle — DA Shadow MMC for Transport Planning in Ekurhuleni

Date: 10 May 2021

Release: Immediate

Type: Media Statement

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni has been raising the gross financial mismanagement and dysfunctional operations taking place at the Brakpan Bus Company (BBC) for almost a decade.

The BBC is in poor financial health and a burden to the Metro and rate paying citizens. We, as the DA, have therefore been calling for the entity to be dissolved and incorporated into the City of Ekurhuleni’s (CoE) existing bus system for years.

In 2014, the DA submitted a motion to Council, which was accepted for a Section 78 review to be implemented, concerning the feasibility and sustainability of the BBC. The DA called for the Section 78 review to provide for the following:

• To stop financial losses, mismanagement, fraud, corruption, and pilfering.

· To consolidate bus, human and other resources, to limit new expenditure and set up costs.

· To eliminate down times owing to buses being out of commission due to repairs or breakdowns.

· To reduce labour unrest and disputes with staff and unions.

· To improve service delivery levels at affordable rates for the residents.

· To expand the current service routes.

In July 2020, following the review, the Feasibility Study identified various business model options to be considered by the CoE. The ANC and its coalition partners* selected the option to create a new ring-fenced CoE Bus Agency, which was likely to perpetuate the trend of the existing BBC. The DA opposed this recommendation as it would result in further financial losses. We submitted a minority report to the Transport Planning Oversight to document our disapproval and propose new recommendations.

The DA selected the option to merge the BBC with the City’s existing bus system, to improve service quality through the sharing of resources. This option also favours an improvement in service delivery and operational effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, there would be no duplication of management structures and associated costs, resulting in much needed cost saving practices.

During the April 2021 Council Meeting, the ANC and its coalition partners* submitted to Council a report on the Municipal System Act 78 Feasibility Study into the most appropriate mechanism to deliver Municipal Bus Service for the City of Ekurhuleni and they voted for the recommendation that the DA has been endorsing for years — to merge the BBC with the Municipal Bus Service to establish a Single Service Business Unit.

The arrogant ANC-led coalition could have stopped the financial hemorrhaging of the BBC by implementing the DA’s recommendations years ago. But the ANC will never take advice from the DA or a leaf out of Midvaal or Cape Town’s books, even at the expense of bleeding the City’s finances dry and unnecessarily extending the suffering of Ekurhuleni residents.

The DA fought tooth and nail in Oversight Committees and in Council to stop the losses, corruption and pilfering at the BBC. This is part of the DA’s policies, and under a DA-led Ekurhuleni, we will reduce wasteful expenditure by implementing strict monitoring and financial controls to ensure efficient and targeted spending according to the Metro’s needs.

*ANC Coalition Partners: African Independent Congress (AIC), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Patriotic Alliance (PA) and Independent Ratepayers Association of South Africa (IRASA)

Cllr. Bill Rundle

DA Shadow MMC for Transport Planning in Ekurhuleni