The DA has served court papers on the City of Joburg (CoJ) over its irregular VIP Protection policy.
On the 20th of March 2024, when the irregular VIP Protection Policy served in council, the DA raised serious concerns while warning the city that they were acting in defiance of constitutional upper limits and that there were serious flaws in the policy itself.
With the tabling of the new budget by the CoJ we have found severely inflated human resource-related costs. It is clearly a ploy to hide their proposal of a R3-million per month security costs that the Council adopted in April this year. The DA voted against the latter.
We cannot allow good governance to go out the window and watch millions being spent on VIP Protection outside the upper limits, while there is barely enough money for service delivery like water, electricity infrastructure protection and roads maintenance.
We believe in the supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law. We cannot stand by and watch lawlessness unfold, in the very same council chamber meant to uphold it. This, while residents are forced to beg for service delivery.
A trend has developed in the executive that leaves service providers unpaid, and basic service delivery at a standstill.
The mayor and his executive are protected to the ends of the earth, and we’re forced to ask why? What could a mayoral cabinet need this much protection from?
We will not allow the ANC/EFF/PA/Al Jama-ah Doomsday Coalition to continue their deeply problematic and flawed approach to service delivery whilst enriching themselves.
We believe that it’s in the interest of the residents of Johannesburg, that their money is spent on them, not on politicians who are supposed to serve them.
We will take the now famous Joburg VIP Protection Policy to court, have it reviewed and declared unlawful, unconstitutional and invalid. If the executive in the CoJ finds themselves unable to uphold the rule of law, or any semblance of good governance, the DA will force them to account.