DA rejects call to merge municipalities
CO-OPERATIVE Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan has asked that the African National Congress (ANC)-run Ikwezi and Camdeboo local municipalities be merged with the Democratic Alliance-run Baviaans local municipality in the Eastern Cape to form one council.
This is yet another proposed merger which has elicited an outcry from opposition parties. The DA claims that the ANC is seeking to take away the oppositionrun Baviaans municipality.
Similar accusations have been levelled at the governing party over proposed mergers in the Midvaal in Gauteng and Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal. The latter has been controlled by the Inkatha Freedom Party.
Baviaans municipality is home to the Baviaanskloof Mega Reserve, a 500,000ha world heritage site and the third largest protected area in SA.
Kevin Naidoo, executive manager for municipal governance at the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, confirmed the proposal, saying Mr Gordhan had made a request to the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) this month, in terms of section 22 of the Municipal Demarcation Act, that municipal borders be redetermined to assist struggling municipalities.
But DA Eastern Cape leader Athol Trollip said yesterday the “eleventh hour” proposal from the minister smacked of “desperate political expediency”.
He said the ANC was trying to “gerrymander” its way out of losing strategic municipalities in the province, which includes Kouga local municipality.
“Camdeboo is a strategic municipality target we can win, but if you combine them, none of these strategic municipalities are technically winnable by the DA and are safely ANC. The timing also leads one to see that the motive appears political rather than administrative.”
The party in the Eastern Cape will monitor DA-run Midvaal municipality’s court bid to prevent the merger with the ANC’s Emfuleni municipality and consult with the MDB as well as the Independent Electoral Commission about opposing the Baviaans merger.
As of 2011 the ANC leads the DA by three seats in Ikwezi local municipality, where the governing party got 66% of votes and the opposition 31.6%. In Baviaans the DA received 55% and the ANC got 44%.
In Camdeboo local municipality the ANC got 55% over the DA’s 42% in the 2011 local government election. The Cacadu district municipality, under which both councils fall, has consistently received unqualified audits with findings over the same period.
Camdeboo and Baviaans have received qualified audits with findings from the auditorgeneral in recent years. Ikwezi went from a qualified audit with findings in 2011 to a disclaimer with findings in the following two years.
Mr Trollip defended Baviaans’ qualified audit, saying the council was never given additional funding to deliver services to the communities surrounding Baviaanskloof when the areas was incorporated into Baviaans municipality.
ANC provincial leader Mlibo Qoboshiyane told Business Day that the party’s provincial leadership supported the proposed merger. “We’ve observed municipalities under distress, rapid urbanisation and collapsing infrastructure.
“The reasons for our support are premised on socioeconomic and geographical challenges.”