Small town self-service

The letter from David Bergman refers, where he expresses his concern about the state of rural towns, in his case Belfast and Lydenburg ( Letters January 15-21).

Allow me to explain from experience how these little towns work. This level is called local government and starts with a local election of ward councillors. Because of the way that ward divisions are done, in most cases only one or at the maximum two DA councillors are elected. The balance of the town council will be ANC. From this council a mayor is elected. He chooses the municipal manager and other important appointments from a list of applicants, bearing in mind that behind the scenes the electioneering machine made promises to various people.

These posts are filled and then they in turn get their friends on board. You need to remember too that 90% of the appointees have absolutely no experience of running a