By BAKANG MOKOTO
Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the North West says the removal of mayors in five municipalities is ‘too little too late’ because the the situation is already in a dire state. The ANC Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) in the province announced its decision to remove the municipalities’ troikas yesterday during a media briefing in Rustenburg.
The affected municipalities are Ditsobotla, Mahikeng, Maquassi Hills, Matlosana Local Municipalities, and the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality.
EFF provincial leader, Shakes Botswe said: “We believe that the removal of those mayors in municipalities was prompted by factional battles. According to the AG’s 2018/ 2019 financial report says the regression in audit outcomes completes a three-year downward trajectory in the province.
“AG’s report shows that nine municipalities received disclaimed opinions and eight received qualified opinions. The availability of documents or evidence to support financial activities remained a vast challenge across the municipalities, as evidenced by the number of repeats disclaimed opinions.”
Botswe said the municipalities in the province incurred irregular expenditure totalling R5 billion. He said mayors from all 22 municipalities need to be recalled because there is a lack of accountability by senior management, municipal managers, mayors, internal audit units, audit committees, municipal public accounts committees and councils.
North West University political analyst, Andre Duvenhage said 80 to 90% of all municipalities in South Africa are dysfunctional. Duvenhage said, for example, there are number of municipalities in the Free State province that cannot provide water and electricity.
“This has also spread to the Western Cape under the Democratic Alliance-led municipalities. Now, the North West is compared to the worst in South Africa. Municipalities in all districts are basically falling apart.
“One day I was flabbergasted after seeing a report claiming that JB Marks Local Municipality is the best municipality in North West. I’m staying here in Potchefstroom for the past 15 years and I must tell you that this is the worst-case scenario in the history of Potchefstroom,” he said.
Duvenhage added that, if the JB Marks Local Municipality is the symbol of the best, people should imagine what is going on in the worst. He said a Section 139 intervention from the provincial government to local government is a complete failure.
“Basically, we can say the local government in the North West is falling apart and is a complete decay. There is also an indication to me that the ANC as a political party may lose support. It may lose the local government structures in a number of districts in the province if it may be elections tomorrow.
“We know that we are heading for local government elections next year and things are not looking good for the ANC. Currently, there is political turmoil taking place in the province. The fact of the matter is that there is a long history of internal conflicts in the party since 1994,” said Duvenhage.
He said everything in South Africa is now politicised and that is a bad omen. Duvenhage further said normally in a democratic country, the state needs to be differentiated with civil society.
“We must have a state structure at one side, and civil society. The ideal was that the state must not interfere in civil society. In South Africa, in the case of the state we have a party that runs it and working with civil societies.
“So, there is also serious infighting in the province with Supra Mahumapelo’s group which is very dominant and we have the ANC IPC coordinator, Hlomani Chauke’s group as involved there as well,” he concludes.
The Guardian 