ANC, EFF ethekwini marriage on shaky ground – analysts
POLITICAL analysts have warned that the ANC and EFF marriage in ethekwini will not last.
They were reacting to the rising disagreements between the coalition partners where the EFF on several occasions voted against the ANC on key strategic items.
Last week, the EFF voted against the ANC’S proposed mayoral izimbizo (service delivery mass gatherings) which has a budget of more than R9 million calling it a thinly-veiled plan for next year’s general elections campaign.
With the EFF rejecting the item, the ANC narrowly won by 12 votes. The EFF also voted against a R1.3m salary
increase for city manager Musa Mbhele.
The increase, which now awaits Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Bongi Sithole-moloi’s approval, will take Mbhele’s salary from R2.6m to R3.9m.
Those who supported the increase argued that the city manager’s pay was on the same scale as his deputy city managers which was unfair, but the opposition said any increase should be linked to performance.
The increase flew in the face of the provincial ANC’S complaints of poor governance of the city which is regarded as the core function of the city manager’s office.
Dr Fikile Vilakazi, from the University of Kwazulu-natal Politics and Public Policy Department said in a true and honest partnership arrangement, a partner would compromise his or her position to avoid public disagreements which was not the case with the two parties. She said one of the problems that would soon collapse the coalition was the ANC’S refusal to allow the EFF to run the units it controls according to its policies.
She added that by refusing to relinquish power, the ANC was making the EFF a sub-branch, something the EFF was trying to avoid. She said this was resulting in public clashes.
Vilakazi said the two partners’ public disagreements were creating instability, especially in the Human and Infrastructure and Municipal Public Accounts Committee which are headed by the EFF.
“The EFF cannot be both the opposition and coalition partner because that will mean they are both a player and a referee which doesn’t work. The party must choose one not both,” said Vilakazi. ENCA political commentator Lukhona Mnguni said it was expected that as the election season starts, the coalition government would take strain since parties in it would be campaigning individually.
He said people should remember that the EFF had initially preferred to work with the IFP.
EFF councillor Themba Mvubu who chairs the human settlements and infrastructure services committee defended their “referee and player” role in the city.
He said they would not allow it to be reduced into an ANC sub-branch. He said the public and the media should know by now that his party voted item by item in ethekwini because its coalition did not mean it had become an ANC sub-branch. ANC provincial spokesperson Mafika Mndebele said that his party was wary of the dangers of being in a coalition which was why they were campaigning to govern alone.