Thank you, Mr Chairman. I am - you will notice -only reading one speech. [Laughter.] Now the point that you're seeking to obscure here is that municipal government is there to deliver good quality municipal services to everybody at low cost on a sustainable basis. And if municipalities were directed by those imperatives only, processes would be unblocked and projects would be undertaken.
There are more sinister concerns that are widely spoken about but difficult to prove, logically possible or even probable. Infrastructure projects are delayed until councillors or municipal officials can find a vehicle to carry out the project which is prepared, which directly benefits them. In plain language, they will not spend the money until they can spend it with somebody who will give them a bribe.
Running like a leaking municipal sewer through all this is a lack of political will; more accurately, perhaps, a subordination of a political will to do the right thing to the dictates of party or factional advantage. The procedural matters I described can and possibly will be fixed, but the political underpinnings of so much of this problem can only be changed when the voters decide to change the ANC for a party with a track record of success in local government, and that party can only be the DA. [Applause.]