No unity in DA on Salga walkout threats

Some councillors in DA-led municipalities in the Western Cape are understood to be against the party advocating withdrawal of councils from the South African Local Government Association (Salga).

The DA has threatened to quit Salga if the association does not do its work in strict compliance with the Constitution and Public Finance Management Act. Failing this it would withdraw all of its Western Cape municipalities as member councils.

Salga is an association of local government leaders and a bargaining representative between municipalities and their employees.

The DA has bemoaned what it calls Salga’s partisan tendencies and said it had put the association on notice for a withdrawal of its councils if its demands were not met.

However, a source — who asked not to be named due to not being authorised to speak on the matter — told Business Day that councillors of George Local Municipality, Swartland Local Municipality, Eden District Municipality and Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality did not support a withdrawal from the association.

DA MP Kevin Mileham, the party’s spokesman on co-operative governance, said: “Salga seems to be taking on an ANC agenda rather than a … nonbiased agenda.

“DA councillors feel excluded from workshops and training where ANC councillors are invited,” he said.

“If we pull out, Salga in the Western Cape would dissolve and it would have to be replaced by something else.”

Whatever replaced Salga would be bound by a bargaining council, but the Western Cape had an internal governance unit and capacity to assist councils better than Salga.

Salga spokesman Sivuyile Mbambato said that while the association respected Mileham’s right to express his views, the complex challenges confronting municipalities “made it necessary for local government to speak with a single, authoritative voice”.

“We will continue our dialogues with whoever has concerns in pursuit of finding an amicable and sustainable solution, so that we can give our undivided attention to citizens’ priorities towards building a responsive local government,” Mbambato said.

Though the source told Business Day that some councillors in the DA-run councils did not support Mileham’s sentiments, none of the municipalities concerned responded to requests for comment to either confirm or deny this.

Mileham insisted that DArun councils were on board with the party on the matter.