MBOMBELA – The proposed amalgamation of local municipalities has drawn the ire of the opposition parties in Mpumalanga. Minister of cooperative governance, Mr Pravin Gordhan last week requested that the boundaries of dysfunctional and non-viable municipalities be redetermined.
The five proposed amalgamations for Mpumalanga are for Mbombela (Nelspruit) and Umjindi (Barberton), Msukaligwa (Ermelo) and Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme (Volksrust), Lekwa (Standerton and Dipaleseng (Balfour), Steve Tshwete (Middelburg) and Emakhazeni (Belfast) and eMalahleni (Witbank) and Victor Khanye (Delmas) to merge.
“(These) boundaries must be determined or redetermined with a view to optimising the financial viability of these municipalities in time for the 2016 municipal elections,” he wrote to the municipal demarcation board (MDB) on February 11.
The provincial executive council announced on Monday that there was a need to reconfigure municipalities since some were not financially sustainable, but survived on grants to pay salaries. The MDB had a meeting about it with the ANC at Nutting House on Wednesday.
Mr Bosman Grobler, MPL and the DA’s provincial coordinator for the MDB was unhappy for not being included in the meeting. He said it had also brought legislature’s work to a standstill as committee meetings which were scheduled for Wednesday had been cancelled.
“The fact that the legislature as an institution can be brought to a standstill when the ANC has a party matter to attend to is a sombre concern.” He agreed that there was nothing technically wrong with the ANC and MDB meeting, but was concerned that other political parties were being excluded.
“The MDB, like the IEC, must be independent. The separation of party, state and independent bodies is non-negotiable for our democracy to succeed.”
He added that the proposals, if implemented, would require massive change. “Delivering services in such big areas will be a problem. And while the stronger municipalities may help weaker ones, the weaker ones could drag the better ones down.
“I think the ANC is afraid that if there is a little unhappiness before the elections and there are three opposition parties standing in smaller municipalities they can easily form coalitions to win.”
Mr Collen Sedibe, MPL and EFF provincial leader, agreed that the MDB should consult with everybody ranging from political parties to communities. “This also confirms what we have been saying – the ruling party is abusing many state-owned institutions through its deployment strategies that seek to employ people who are loyal and partisan to their organisation.”
Mr Cleopas Maunye, MPL of the Bushbuckridge Residents Association (BRA) agreed, saying the meeting was no surprise. “It confirms the moves the ANC are making on government institutions, which give them the upper hand to abuse state institutions. As opposition parties we need to be afforded an opportunity to give input on the matter.
“Are the mergers really necessary? The ANC must understand that municipalities are failing to perform because of a lack of capacity among councillors and the administration. Why is Thaba Chweu Municipality (TCM) not merged with Bushbuckridge or Mbombela? Nothing is moving there. If they are really concerned about viability they must amalgamate TCM.”
Provincial ANC secretary Mr Lucky Ndinisa says it was a mere meeting among party members and that the MDB didn’t attend it at all. He adds that his party supports the proposed mergers as some of the municipalities will never be able to meet people’s needs on their own.
“Some just don’t have the capacity to attract certain skills and remunerate those skills.”
Ndinisa says TCM is a different matter as they possess the necessary capacity to deliver services, but the people deployed there by the ANC to manage it may be the problem.
Mr Zibonele Mncwango, spokesman for the Office of the Premier, said the public participation process should now unfold.
