On Monday, April 20 a huge group of people gathered in Delmas raising their voices against the amalgamation of the two municipalities. The group of concerned residents did a walk-drive from Delmas to Middelburg to raise the same issue.
“The amalgamation came a long way from the ANC conference in Polokwane. We will not stand idle and let government merge the two municipalities. Why should smaller municipalities be amalgamated with bigger municipalities for financial sustainability?” asked Mr Diikgetse Sepenyane, spokesperson for the Delmas community.
He said the meeting on Monday was presented in a good manner and 15 000 people spoke in one voice to the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) and rejected MDB’s proposals.
Sepenyane said Delmas boasts a 70% residential revenue collection and on the other end of the scale Emalahleni can only manage a 30% residential revenue collection.
“We will consider the proposal positive if they add Springs or Bronkhorstspruit with Victor Khanye municipality. It makes sense as both the towns are in Gauteng, while Emalahleni is in Mpumalanga. We won’t let Delmas be swallowed up in the amalgamation,” Sepenyane said.
He threw fuel on the smouldering fire and said Emalahleni can’t take care of its own water, sewer and electricity problems and they have a weak political and administrative leadership.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) also jumped on the bandwagon and said they to do not support any of the four proposed amalgamations between the municipalities of Msukaligwa and Pixley Ka Isaka Seme, Emakhazeni and Steve Tshwete, Emalahleni and Victor Khanye along with Umjindi and Mbombela.
The DA has appealed to the MDB to request Cooperative Governance Minister, Mr Pravin Gordhan not to go ahead with joining municipalities.
“Talks of amalgamating municipalities have already led to unrest in certain communities and the continued pressure on residents to agree to the amalgamations is likely to lead to more violent protests,” said Mr Bosman Grobler from the DA.
Grobler said the idea that bigger municipalities will perform better is fundamentally flawed as numerous examples across the province and country have shown this. In fact, smaller municipalities tend to have better audit outcomes because they are easier to hold accountable.
The DA is of the opinion that if these amalgamations continue as proposed, the residents of small towns will suffer the most due to a lack of service delivery because they are away from the centre of power.
They said they will make another submission to the MDB to appeal to Gordhan to retract or at least postpone the proposed amalgamations at least until after the 2016 municipal election.
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