DA Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate Khathutshelo Rasilingwane has vowed to crack the whip in the administration should she be elected mayor.
She has decried the lack of oversight as one of the leading causes of the decay, vowing to turn things around.
“What we are seeing in Ekurhuleni is that the city has become a case study for corruption, bad governance and an ill-managed municipality. One of the biggest responsibilities of an executive mayor is to get the city running and to oversee the administration’s work.
“It’s been very painful and sad to hear the revelations that are coming out of the Madlanga commission, which have indicated how captured the city has been,” she told Sunday Times.
She said all that has been happening at the city talks to the lack of oversight from those who have been entrusted with the responsibility to do so.
Rasilingwane called for the institution to be professionalised as a start, to ensure that those hired are fit for their roles.
“We need to ensure that the officials that we hire or trust with responsibility should be people who have been afforded the opportunity based on merit and are highly qualified for the responsibilities that they will be taking up.”
She vowed that under her leadership, consequence management would be the order of the day.
“If there is no sense of consequence, there is no head of department that is going to respect the leadership or do things differently, knowing that they will not be held accountable if they are found to be involved in corruption or that they will be protected, as we have heard from the commission.”
The mayoral hopeful said consequence management as well as thorough investigations are needed and will be conducted, and should any official be found to be on the wrong side of the law, criminal prosecutions should take place.
She highlighted Ekurhuleni’s standing as an industrial and manufacturing hub in the province, saying that its systems have to work to attract investment.
I became an activist and got involved at a council level to advocate for many communities that today still go through the same challenges that I grew up experiencing.
— Khathutshelo Rasilingwane, DA Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate
“We cannot afford for roads not to be maintained and business not to move. We have to prioritise roads and stormwater systems to rebuild the basics to get the local economy moving. This is important for investment to come into our city.”
The mayoral candidate said she already has a 100-day plan in place to kickstart her tenure, having assessed the challenges and problem areas that require immediate attention.
“We need to prioritise water and sanitation, as well as stop the spillage of water. It’s not that there is no water, but it is the infrastructure that is not maintained to manage leaks. Electricity needs to be looked at to ensure that we have energy resilience. We need to stabilise our supply, reduce the losses and modernise the grid.”
Rasilingwane said a simple look around the city lays bare the state of affairs, a situation she pledges to change.
“If you look around Ekurhuleni, infrastructure is collapsing and service delivery across communities is something that is unknown. Areas like Thembisa spend weeks without water, and the Kempton Park area can go for six weeks without electricity.”
Rasilingwane, also a member of the Gauteng provincial legislature, first made her debut at the Ekurhuleni municipal council in 2016, where she was promoted to a shadow mayoral community member responsible for health and social development. She returned to the council for another term in 2021 and was eventually appointed MMC for community safety the following year.
She has also served in various caucus roles, including chief whip. Following the 2024 general election, she moved to the Gauteng provincial legislature, where she serves as an MPL.
Rasilingwane said her activism was born from the living conditions she grew up in, having been raised in an informal settlement that was not serviced by the city.
“I decided to use my voice to amplify the plight of others because of my environment. The fact that we didn’t have resources was an issue, yet freedom was won to safeguard the dignity of citizens and to secure the basic needs like water. I became an activist and got involved at a council level to advocate for many communities that today still go through the same challenges that I grew up experiencing.”
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