On 3 August voters will have the opportunity to kick out a number of useless councillors or keep them on the gravy train to continue doing nothing if they are happy with what has gone down in Mogalakwena Local Municipality since 2011. However, if the situation at the municipality makes any voter happy, I wonder what disaster must befall us to make him sad.
Let us take stock. Should the ANC win this election, we will have the umpteenth new mayor to wreak further havoc on an already dangerously fragile municipality. Mogalakwena is a shining example of the cynicism exhibited by the ANC through its policy of cadre deployment. Is it too much to ask for a functioning municipality where all workers, officials and elected representatives work for the benefit of the whole community? Where court orders are not simply ignored or appealed at voters’ expense? Where management, rather than workers, is in charge? Where service delivery is the order of the day and political infighting for a place on the gravy train is non-existent? And then some councillors have the brazen audacity to ask voters to give them another chance. To do what? Out with the lot of them, I say.
A little birdie told me the other day that Mogalakwena Platinum mine has been spending around R6 000 000 per month on basic services in the villages around the mine, mainly on water provision. This is money that could have and should have gone towards social upliftment of those communities if the municipality had been doing its work. I hear that the mine has already exceeded its budget in this regard for the year by nearly R10 000 000. A big hurrah for Mogalakwena Platinum and a stink bomb for the municipality, who I am reliably told is mightily upset by this intervention. When you do nothing and people do not know what you are supposed to be doing, no-one can point a finger. However, when someone else starts doing your job and people now discover that you have not been doing yours, do something about it. Do not then criticize an organisation for interfering in an area where your own incompetence has been shown up.
I always wondered where the EFF’s money comes from, because running an election costs an awfully big sum. I wonder no more. Another rather important little birdie whispered in my ear that most of its funding comes from the inner circle of the ANC itself, some even from prominent political figures. Is it a case of moneyed people playing both sides of the fence? If I listen to the promises being made by the red berets, those moneyed pockets had better be deep, as no amount of taxpayer money will be able to realise all its promises. After the excesses of the ANC, with a R4 billion jet still on the cards for the Chief of “Nkôndla”, the state coffers are already rather substantially depleted.
Voters, I beg of you not to be dazzled by political promises. It is easy to promise, but hard to deliver, especially if an elected representative is beholden to a so-called president who has to stand trial on 783 charges of corruption, gangsterism and fraud. After 22 years of real democracy in South Africa, can you survive another 5 years of empty ANC promises? Look at what has been promised for political opportunism and what has actually been delivered.
Corinus du Toit is an independent columnist and his opinion and views expressed does not necessary reflect those of Bosveld, its parent company, nor its sister publication.
Die bron van die myninligting en munisipale ontevredenheid daaroor is Richard Cox, mynbestuurder, maar ek mag hom nie aanhaal nie. Ek het sy toestemming om die inligting gebruik. Die EFF inligting kom vanaf Prof Teffo, politieke kommentator op verskeie radiostasies en prof aan UNISA. Ek mag hom ook nie aanhaal nie. C.
