ANC targets winning back Free State votes

Chief whip in the municipal council is booed by party supporters as Ramaphosa parades premier Ntombela at stadium in Maluti-a-Phofung municipality

QwaQwa in the Maluti-a-Phofung local municipality has had inconsistent water and electricity supply in recent years. So it was no surprise that the ANC chief whip in the municipal council, Betsi Mofokeng, was booed on Sunday by hundreds of ANC supporters.

They had gathered at the Makwane Sports Ground where ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa was on the campaign trail.

Like other dysfunctional councils in the Free State, the ANC in Maluti-a-Phofung cannot rely on party loyalty to secure votes in the November 1 local government elections as the financial mismanagement of municipalities is most felt by residents who rely on them for direct provision of basic services such as water and sanitation.

One local resident, Petrus Mojalefa, told Business Day that the area had deteriorated so much that most of the companies that had employed artisans had closed down or relocated, leaving hundreds of people in the area, including himself, unemployed.

Building a wall for his neighbour, which he described as a “piece job”, the father of three said: “That is the only job that I will have for a long time…. It is almost December and I will not be able to feed my children or to buy them clothes.”

In addition to rampant unemployment, the community has been experiencing a water crisis since 2016 stemming from ageing water infrastructure and poor maintenance. On March 31, Maluti-a-Phofung owed Eskom R5.9bn in unpaid debt.

The ANC deployed prominent party members, including deputy president David Mabuza and national executive member (NEC) Zizi Kodwa, to the municipality before to lure voters back. That is after the ANC was left with egg on its face in 2018 after 16 councillors sided with the opposition to boot out former mayor Vusi Tshabalala, whom they accused of corruption.

The group of 16 formed the MAP 16 Civic Movement, which has held the majority of seats in the municipal council, leaving the ANC with only three members, including the mayor, Masechaba Mosia Lakaje and speaker Tumelo Thebe.

Ramaphosa urged ANC supporters who had jumped ship and voted for MAP 16 in successive by-elections to return to the

ANC. In return for votes, Ramaphosa said the party would get rid of “thieves” who had stolen funds meant for service delivery.

“We will take them out one by one and we will continue to do so until they are all gone. We don’t want those people in our party,” he said.

His remarks are in line with the ANC’s election campaign, centred on turning the tide on dysfunctional municipalities, which it had led, to generate more jobs and attract investment.

Ramaphosa has had to balance the party’s reform agenda, the ticket on which he campaigned, with factions in the ANC. He played the factions down and paraded Free State premier Sisi Ntombela, once seen as part of ANC secretarygeneral Ace Magashule’s faction, to the crowds that had gathered to hear him speak on Sunday.

A show of party unity is critical ahead of the polls as the ANC aims to claw back voters from opposition parties. The party’s support in the province has been declining since 2016, when it garnered 61.53% of the vote that fell to 57.6% in 2019.

Opposition parties — the DA, EFF and Freedom Front Plus — aim to capitalise further on the ANC’s failures in the province as all three parties have increased their share of the votes since the 2016 municipal polls.

On the campaign trail in the province, EFF leader Julius Malema told residents of Phuthaditjhaba a day before Ramaphosa’s appearance that should the party be elected, Eskom would be required to provide free electricity to all who are indigent because the power utility has the capacity to do so.

Maluti-a-Phofung is but one of the Free State municipalities that have been serial underperformers in recent years, with it failing to achieve an unqualified audit opinion or clean audit.

Besides water and electricity shortages, political instability has heightened the deterioration of the municipal central business district of Phuthaditjhaba, where the streets are marked with potholes and litter on the pavements.

Auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke’s 2019/2020 report cast doubt on the ability of 73% of the Free State’s 23 municipalities to continue as going concerns. The province has not achieved a clean audit since Fezile Dabi District’s clean audit in 2015/2016.