Major parties to battle for control of municipality
SOUTH Africa’s major political parties are expected to battle for control of Mamusa Local Municipality in North West today.
Residents of the town of Schweizer-Reneke and surrounding areas are going to the polls following the North West provincial government’s decision to dissolve the council elected in the 2016 local government elections.
The government accused the previous administration of corruption and maladministration, saying councillors and officials were colluding to loot public funds. The municipality was dissolved in October last year.
The ANC, EFF, Forum for Service Delivery (FSD), Freedom Front Plus and DA have already claimed victory in the elections. More than 20 000 people are expected to vote.
In the run-up to the election, most of the parties deployed senior leaders to the small town of Schweizer-Reneke – the birthplace of ANC veteran and Rivonia trialist Ahmed Kathrada – to lobby for votes.
The big guns included the EFF’s Julius Malema, the DA’s John Steenhuisen and the FSD’s Mbahare Kekana, while the ANC deployed Obed Bapela and former Northern Cape premier Sylvia Lucas. In the disbanded administration, the ANC was the majority party with 11 seats, while the FSD was the official opposition with three seats. The EFF had two and the DA and Freedom Front Plus each had one.
Yesterday, the ANC in the North West said it was going to retain their majority with a landslide victory.
ANC spokesperson Kenny Morolong said: “In Mamusa, our people have expressed their support for the decision of the provincial government to dissolve the municipal council. Residents have indicated that despite various service delivery challenges, the ANC is the only political party that is committed to delivering a tangible socio-economic transformation in their communities.”
As for the FSD, the party has vowed to transcend its standing as the official opposition. Kekana said: “We only need 13 000 votes to take control of the municipality. In 2016 we contested only five wards out of nine and we ended up with three proportional representation seats.
“We did not have resources at the time. We had nothing but we worked very hard. I want to win a ward, not a PR seat. I still commit that I will reward a candidate who can give us a ward seat with an amount of R100 000.”
Equally confident was the EFF, which drew large numbers of people to their rallies over the weekend.
EFF North West provincial secretary Papikie Babuile said Mamusa would become the first municipality in the country to be under the control of his party after the election. “We have spoken to 20 000 voters who attended our rallies and they have told us that they are going to vote for the EFF. We are contesting all nine wards and we are going to take all of them.”
The DA, however, is hoping to improve on its 2016 performance. DA North West leader Joe McGluwa said his party had boosted its election machinery and hoped to become the majority party in council.
“As a first prize, we would like to retain ward 9 and gain other wards,” McGluwa said. He said his party had engaged with various communities and had received commitments they would vote for the party.
LONG-time friend and associate of the late business icon Richard Maponya, Sam Motsuenyane, has warned that the country’s economic woes would persist if powerful business people continued to fight among themselves.
Motsuenyane was speaking at Maponya’s funeral at the University of Johannesburg in Soweto.
Maponya has been hailed for staring adversity in the face and inspiring an entire generation of black business people to take entrepreneurship seriously and for his contribution in building the township economy.
He died last week, a few days after he turned 99.
A founding chairperson of the National African Federated Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) Maponya leaves behind a retail empire with interests in various sectors, including property and construction.
Motsuenyane said the spirit of sacrifice was gradually diminishing in the black community and that black business people in organisations like Nafcoc were fighting among each other.
“I appeal to those people who are members of the business community to take the responsibility to help build a nation and if they don’t do that, we will stay in poverty for a long time to come. The socio-economic problems and challenges facing our country today like low economic growth, poverty and high unemployment shall never be successfully addressed if potentially powerful organisations like Nafcoc remain divided and weak,” he said.
Delivering the eulogy at the funeral, President Cyril Ramaphosa described Maponya as one of SA’s most resilient sons whose well-led life had to be celebrated.
Thousands of mourners, including former presidents Thabo Mbeki and Kgalema Motlanthe attended the funeral, with speakers taking turns detailing how Maponya withstood apartheid repression and built a business empire that inspired and reignited the entrepreneurial spirit of many black South Africans.
Ramaphosa said Maponya had been an ethical entrepreneur who stood for self-upliftment and self-reliance.
“Today we bid a sad farewell to a man of extraordinary resilience who rose above his circumstances and persevered until he reached the pinnacle of success and yet he remained humble, magnanimous and generous,” Ramaphosa said.
He said Maponya had been a soldier for the economic emancipation of black South Africans.
“He was a business person, yes, but he was driven by the conviction that SA would never be truly free until the fruits of prosperity are shared by all its people,” he said.
Ramaphosa said he had inspired a whole generation of business people and took them under his wing.
Media entrepreneur Felicia Mabuza-Suttle, whose Soweto home was next to the Maponya household, said she was one of the business people who grew under Maponya’s wing.
“My first break to go abroad was given to me by the Maponyas. Get close to people that you admire, young people. Talk to them and find out what drives them and how they got to where they are,” Mabuza-Suttle said.
Businesswoman Wendy Luhabe, also Maponya’s mentee, said she had generously imparted his wisdom to the young and old throughout his life, especially women.