ANC has to have strong leaders to move metro in right direction

A FRIEND tells the story of how, when still serving in the Eastern Cape government a few years ago, he had bumped into an old acquaintance in the men's bathroom of the OR Tambo International Airport in Gauteng.

They exchanged pleasantries and my friend soon learnt the gentleman was then the manager of a municipality on the east side of our province.

At the time he had managed that municipality for about four months.

About three months later the two bumped into each other again at a coffee shop at the same airport.

They chatted and my friend then learnt the acquaintance had moved on and taken up another top job at another municipality in this province.

Although surprised by the move so soon into his old job, my friend did not ask questions.

A couple of months later the two again bumped into each other at a government event in East London.

Only this time the acquaintance was there as a senior official of the Bhisho administration.

Shocked, my friend asked the gentleman how he had managed to whiz through these jobs in a short space of time.

The answer, he said, had everything to do with the game of musical chairs that was played by the political leadership of those municipalities at the time.

It was a game that, intentionally or not, trickled down to the administration of those

The ANC will argue projects designed to develop our city need massive financial injections

municipalities and undoubtedly affected service delivery to communities where it was needed the most.

I am reminded of this story because of the sweeping changes that are again imminent in our Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.

Just less than two years into their tenure, the ANC, we are told, is preparing to reshuffle the mayoral committee.

It is a change that members claim will see deputy mayor Chippa Ngcolomba, at best, shifted sideways and out of the power seat he has become accustomed to.

While some members claim mayor Ben Fihla might be spared the axe, others believe the change could very well start with the city’s number one.

The official word from the ANC off course is there is no leadership reshuffle on the cards.

But then again, if we believed the official word, we might as well believe Bafana Bafana actually stood a chance of lifting the Fifa World Cup in 2010.

It is common cause that as soon as the ANC wraps up its internal wheeling and dealing, and as soon as it is ready to admit the appointment of the current leadership in March last year was yet another own goal that was always going to backfire, it will make its move.

Believe what you will, but the party’s appointment of Fihla – a man in his twilight years – and expecting him to wrap up a lengthy and commendable political career by cleaning up a cesspool of leadership squabbles and administration blunders was simply astonishing. The ANC seems to not learn from its mistakes.

Despite numerous leadership changes, it has so far been unable to tackle entrenched administrative problems which continue to keep this city at second best.

Some of the ANC’s leaders can be credited with luring impressive investments which have somewhat changed the economic landscape of our metro to some extent.

But the party has unfortunately been unable to truly propel our city to claim its place as a major player in this country.

The ANC will argue projects designed to develop our city need massive financial injections for them to work efficiently.

But a shortage of money is the least of our problems.

Too often municipal deep throats tell disturbing stories of how our city’s resources are at times pimped out to the highest bidder.

Officials tell how often they are told to toss municipal laws aside and carry out illegal instructions that are designed to politically or even financially benefit an elite few.

The notorious letter by former city manager Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela to then Local Government MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane last year, in which she alleged she was often put under undue political pressure to implement illegal decisions is the most lasting example.

If all these are to be believed, then the question becomes: When the ANC eventually changes its leadership again, what is it going to do differently this time around?

Does the ANC have leaders capable of giving strong political leadership to create an environment for officials to do what they are paid to do, guided by the laws that govern this country?

For the sake of the people of Walmer Township, Uitenhage, Motherwell, Helenvale and other parts of our city that are often at the cold receiving end of poor leadership, I hope this time the ANC will strike the right chords.

It is nothing less than a crying shame that in this city – the final resting place of Govan Mbeki and Raymond Mhlaba – in the city named after Nelson Mandela, the ANC has seemingly failed to do what these giants did best – to lead.

Makunga is the political editor of The Herald and the Weekend Post