Tshwane Mayor unveils horticultural equipment worth R11 million to enhance city maintenance

Tshwane Mayor Nasiphi Moya has unveiled 555 pieces of horticultural equipment worth R11 million in Pretoria as part of the city's efforts to build internal capacity and maintain clean and beautiful streets.

During the handover ceremony on Wednesday, Moya said her administration decided to build internal capacity, moving away from relying on tenders for services that the city's workforce can handle.

“When we were doing our adjustment budget in February we said as this administration that we need to capacitate our officials with the tools of trade and with the PPEs,” she said.

The equipment will empower the municipal workforce to address service delivery backlogs, including grass-cutting, in all seven regions of the city.

Among the equipment were brush-cutters, backpack sprayers, backpack blowers, chainsaws, pruners, and garden tractors, which were purchased through the reprioritisation of funds by the regional operations and coordination department.

Moya said: “In the next three months, with the delivery of the new equipment, our regions will work in accordance with an urban management plan to address grass-cutting in public spaces including parks and cemeteries. The aim is to ensure that grass-cutting takes place ahead of the summer season.”

She said her administration aims to create a beautiful city with decent landscapes and livable spaces.

“Our workers have, for years, decried their inability to perform because they do not have the tools of trade. The supply of this equipment comes as the City has adopted a revised urban management plan that will align service delivery initiatives across all departments in the City,” she said.

The plan, she said, aims to get municipal departments collaborating in each of the seven regions to tackle key service delivery issues such as road maintenance, public lighting, urban infrastructure upkeep, and waste management.

Each department will have a weekly target of actions to deliver and be assessed on, based on the plan's action list.

Moya mentioned that in May, the city rolled out 30 fleet vehicles to the seven regions to boost response times for the Tshwane Metro Police Department. Additionally, the mayoral executive handed over the first 14 cherry pickers out of a batch of 100 last month to support enhanced city maintenance efforts.

“We have also prioritised the purchase of personal protective equipment to protect our workforce and ensure we mitigate injury in the discharge of their work,” she said.

Deputy Mayor Eugene Modise cautioned workers against stealing parts of the equipment, the equipment itself, or diesel, warning that such actions would land them in trouble with city management.

He also assured workers that the administration is committed to settling outstanding payments, asking them to be patient as city management engages in ongoing negotiations with the labour unions to find a solution.

Modise's comments on negotiations with unions follow the breakdown of talks between the City and the South African Municipal Workers Union over the outstanding 3.5% wage increase for the 2021/22 period, which were facilitated by the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration on June 10 and 23.

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za