ANC losing local government plot
The ANC demarcates for political allies, while it throws the book at rivals. The tales of Matatiele and Malamulele, in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo respectively, paint a picture of a governing party at odds with governance principles and processes, and one that is a comfortable bedfellow with expediency to achieve a political end.
Matatiele and Malamulele are both peri-urban towns located in desperately poor provinces. Their residents share a common aspiration: that their towns’ demarcations be reversed to factor in service provision and economic opportunities. Last week, Matatiele got its wish — on paper at least — when Communications Minister Ayanda Dlodlo said in a Cabinet statement that the reincorporation of the Eastern Cape town into KwaZulu-Natal would get under way.
Motsoaledi Local Municipality and Marble Hall Local Municipality were also thrown a demarcation bone.
No such luck for Malamulele, whose frustrated residents burnt down schools and mounted weeks-long protests to vent their displeasure at the government, which had moved the area’s administration to a new council.
Neighbouring Vuwani is in the same boat as Malamulele.
Unlike the residents of Matatiele, those of Malamulele do not have a political bargaining chip in the form of a coalition agreement with the governing party.
This perhaps explains the eagerness to reopen the demarcation for Matatiele while the door remains closed for Malamulele, whose residents have been effectively told to make peace with their lot.
The African Independent Congress (AIC) had been breathing down the ANC’s neck, demanding that provincial borders be redrawn to accommodate Matatiele back into KwaZulu-Natal from the Eastern Cape.
Failure would not be tolerated, the AIC insisted, and would be dealt with swiftly by pulling out of the coalition, which would potentially sound the death knell for the ANC governing its only metro in Gauteng: Ekurhuleni.
Such an eventuality would leave the ANC governing backwater metros such as Buffalo City and Mangaung, with the rest in the hands of DA-led coalition partnerships.
The major metros come with considerable operating budgets and access to invaluable resources. Governing them also comes with political prestige.
By design, municipalities are at the coalface of service delivery because they deal directly with residents’ everyday needs and give meaning and expression to local government policy.
The ANC can ill-afford not to have a presence in this space, especially in Gauteng, which it is predicted to either lose in 2019 or win just enough votes to need a coalition deal.
Losing Ekurhuleni would also be a case in point of what political analysts have long been saying about the governing party: that it is losing the battle for the hearts and minds of urban South Africans. Also, that the ANC is fast becoming a rural operator.
The once modernist and moderate party, which used to enjoy support from a crosssection of society, is morphing into a reactionary, one-trick political pony whose main theatre of enterprise is increasingly becoming rural.
In terms of the metro equation, Ekurhuleni is the ANC’s last remaining campaign ticket in Gauteng for 2019 — the party simply cannot afford the political hit of losing it.
Gauteng is the country’s economic centre, with Johannesburg and Tshwane its crown jewels.
Johannesburg is considered the province’s economic hub, while Tshwane is the seat of executive power. Ekurhuleni is an important factor in that it is being developed into a transport hub and has attracted major projects.
The ANC managed to win 48.6% of votes in Ekurhuleni during the August 2016 local government elections, which necessitated it going into a coalition to retain control of the council. The governing party could not count on the United Democratic Movement, the DA, the EFF or the IFP for a coalition partnership, so it had to turn to the AIC.
The viability of the agreement hinged on the ANC acceding to the AIC’s demand that Matatiele go back into KwaZulu-Natal.
The Municipal Demarcation Board, which is responsible for determining council boundaries and accounts to the cooperative governance minister, has been noticeably silent on this latest development.
Although the board is meant to be an independent and impartial entity, it does stand accused of taking decisions that favour the ANC administration, to the detriment of residents.
The demarcation board did say in late March that no major redeterminations of municipal boundaries — such as amalgamations, annexations or categorisations — would take place between now and 2019, when the next general election is to take place.
That announcement was used to tell Malamulele residents that their pleas to be removed from Collins Chabane Local Municipality would not be accommodated as there was simply no compelling political reason for the ANC to indulge such a request.
But this presents a poser for the credibility of the board and bring into question its independence. Demarcations were intended to be a key policy instrument in undoing apartheid spatial planning by pairing poor municipalities with well-resourced ones.
What policy makers never foresaw was this process being used for political ends.
The ANC may have opened a Pandora’s box, a step that may come back to bite the party.