Chairperson, I want to move a motion without notice: That the Council -
1) notes the steeply rising costs of the construction of the first phase of the Integrated Rapid Transit System, IRT, in the DA-led City of Cape Town;
2) further notes that -
a) the IRT, which was hailed as one of the biggest infrastructure development projects ever undertaken in the city by the then Executive Mayor and now Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille, was projected to cost R1,4 billion and has doubled to R4,5 billion with tenders coming in higher than expected and start-up costs significantly more than initially modelled; and
b) ratepayers will bear the brunt of the ballooning costs of the City of Cape Town's R4.5 billion public transport system and the expected R99 million operating shortfall, by paying higher property taxes, parking and fuel levies, paying steep prices for permits to use the city's roads or by contributing to a new local business tax;
3) recognises that since this blunder, and as part of its desperate attempts to conceal it from the public, the City of Cape Town has proposed a reduction of the size of its bus fleet for the 2010 shuttle service and scrapped the reserve service; and
(4) takes this opportunity to call on the former Mayor of Cape Town and on the DA to stop hiding behind administrators and take full responsibility for this blunder that has embarrassed our nation and the community and to apologise to the people of the Western Cape and South Africans at large.
Hon member, your time has expired. Your motion will be printed in full in the Order Paper.
Madam Chair, firstly, I object to that motion and I ask you to rule on whether it's acceptable for a member of this Council to mislead this Council, because she referred to the taxes of the taxpayers in Cape Town and that is government money. That is not rates and taxes.
Hon member Watson, I haven't asked if there was any objection. [Interjections.] Is there any objection to the motion? Yes, there is. In light of the objection, the motion may not be proceeded with. The motion without notice will now become a notice of motion.