Ekurhuleni coalition council in peril

• AIC partner wants demarcation of Matatiele to go before Parliament by November

Time is running out for the ANC as it struggles to implement the promises it made to the African Independent Congress, which helped it to retain power in Ekurhuleni.

Time is running out for the ANC as it struggles to implement promises it made to the African Independent Congress (AIC), which helped it to retain power in Ekurhuleni.

In the 2016 local government elections, the ANC received just under 50% of the vote. It won 109 seats in the metro and needed 112 to obtain a majority in the council to ward off a coalition with opposition parties such as the DA and the EFF.

The AIC managed to win four seats in the poll.

In return for keeping it in power in the East Rand metro, the ANC agreed in a memorandum of understanding to move Matatiele in the Eastern Cape back to KwaZulu-Natal.

Such a decision will have to go through Parliament and could trigger similar calls by other regions with border disputes.

Aubrey Mhlongo, spokesman for the AIC, said on Monday that the party had written to the ANC to request a meeting this week, because the AIC wanted feedback on the implementation of the memorandum of understanding.

Mhlongo said the deadline for implementation of the agreement was the end of November, because the AIC believed the ANC would be too busy with its elective conference in December to tackle the issue.

He said that if the ANC did not introduce the demarcation in the National Assembly by November, it would show the ANC had failed to play its part.

If there was no progress on the demarcation by the end of 2017, the party would “go back to the drawing board and take another decision”, he said.

In addition to the incorporation of Matatiele into KwaZuluNatal, the agreement also called for the opening of an agricultural college in Maluti township near Matatiele, as well as the tarring of the region’s rural and provincial roads. The memorandum of understanding makes specific reference to the road connecting Lesotho and SA, with Matatiele consequently being declared a nodal point on the route.

Mhlongo said the AIC had been given verbal assurances regarding implementation, but it wanted a meeting to get a formal update on the issues.

The request for a meeting was forwarded to the ANC on Monday, and the AIC asked that it take place this week.

Mhlongo said construction work had begun on one of the roads.