BCM digs heels in over Masiphathisane

A PROPOSAL to implement a programme aimed at streamlining interactions between municipal departments and communities hit rocky waters in a Buffalo City Metro council meeting recently.

A report on the national Operation Masiphathisane – driven by premier Phumulo Masualle in the Eastern Cape – was tabled before council last month by speaker Alfred Mtsi, who was seeking approval for its implementation.

However, it was met with criticism from the DA as well as a number of ANC councillors.

The launch of the project, which is meant to be implemented in municipalities countrywide, is scheduled for April.

The project hopes to address the “non-existence of vertical and horizontal linkages on planning and the non-effective participation of sector departments at local level”.

Mtsi said in his report that the Masiphathisane operation would help to close this gap.

A “silo mentality on service del results in “duplication of efforts and pressure on limited resources”, reads his report.

“In addition, [Masiphathisane] will address the lack of community ownership of services rendered, which results in persistent social unrest and a lack of proper monitoring and evaluation to track the impact of service delivery on citizens,” he said.

Senior ANC councillor Sindiswa Gomba spoke against the proposal in council.

She argued: “We operate on the basis of the Integrated Development Plan [IDP].

“I would want to see an IDP that is linked to how this [project] will unfold.”

She said she had raised her feelings in the ANC caucus, which is known to be divided between Masualle supporters and those of new ANC provincial chair, Oscar Mabuyane.

Gomba is understood to be linked to Mabuyane’s faction, which supports Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign for national party president.

She added: “This thing of Masiphathisane, it’s the same to me as the “back to basics” or Simaxadanxada.

“For me it would make sense to rather see the direction of the development planning within our wards [before agreeing] to this.”

While a councillors’ workshop, at a cost of R64 150, has already taken place in an attempt to educate councillors on how Operation Masiphathisane would work, Gomba criticised the report saying it did not give details of how the project would be unfolded.

DA councillor Geoff Walton said the report had not dealt with the costs for actual implementation.

“The council needs to be aware of what these costs are and the decisions and budgeting in this regard. The costs of the workshop are not relevant here. What is relevant is the cost for implementation.

“The DA proposes that the report is referred for further development and then submitted with the input of the chief financial officer and corporate services,” he said.

Gomba’s suggestion that the report be deferred until the next council meeting was accepted. —