Daily Dispatch
Squabbles lead councils to brink
The recent developments in Mnquma local municipality are hardly surprising. It has emerged that the troubled municipality is on the brink of collapse – with the council even running out of toilet paper. That is just how much the administration has deteriorated due to financial mismanagement and maladministration.
Contributing to the instability are the growing tensions between ANC councillors that have long plagued the municipality, which has been characterised by defections, court cases, expulsions, even assassination attempts. The ANC-led municipality has had five mayors since 2006.
The reality is that while a large part of South Africa has progressed, in terms of infrastructure development, hardly anything has changed in the area as service delivery took a back seat to the political squabbles. The troubles of Mnquma date back to 2006 when the municipality became the first in a democratic South Africa to be placed under the administration of the provincial government. As it is said in politics, history has a tendency of repeating itself.
The current battle brewing in the Mnquma council chambers, in Butterworth, is between the mayor Thobeka Bikitsha and council speaker Zibuthe Mnqwazi.
It was the same thing in 2012 when then Mnquma speaker Nomnikelo Magadla and mayor Baba Ganjana were involved in a bitter tussle.
Once again, the divisions playing out in Mnquma are informed by the political dynamics at provincial level. Bikitsha is viewed as being an ally of the new ANC provincial chairman Oscar Mabuyane, while the speaker is part of the camp led by Amathole regional secretary Teris Ntutu.
The standoff between Bikitsha and Mnqwazi has once again ended up in court, with Bikitsha successfully applying for the closure of the municipal account and thwarting a council decision to increase the municipality’s overdraft facility.
The municipality is now so broke that it cannot pay salaries and service providers. The situation is so dire that the Dispatch reported yesterday that staff have been told to bring their own toilet paper.
Cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa has now been left with no other choice but to send an administrator to take over the reins.
But the political turmoil is not only confined to Mnquma, as the same is happening in Enoch Mgijima in Komani and Makana in Grahamstown. Xasa has informed both Makana and Enoch Mgijima that he intends sending administrators to run the troubled councils. Sending administrators may be a necessary step, but it is unlikely to quell the political infighting.
The reality is nothing will change until after the ANC national conference next month. Relative calm will return to the municipalities for a short period after a new ANC president is elected, only to unravel as soon as the next conference is in the offing.
It may seem the natural thing to sympathise with the residents of these towns, but they are equally complicit in the mismanagement of their municipalities. These problems are not new, yet they continue to vote the same people into power.