Row brewing over Matatiele’s status

Council dead against transfer to KwaZulu-Natal, but AIC issues threats

MATATIELE municipal bosses have rejected the proposed return of the ANC-led local authority from the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal. Last week, the KwaZulu-Natal legislature’s ad hoc committee held a public hearing in Kokstad regarding the possibility of Matatiele’s being reincorporated.

But municipal authorities in Matatiele resolved at a council meeting held on Friday to reject the proposal.

Council speaker Nomasomi Mshuqwana said at a media briefing later that the establishment of the municipality in another province would have far-reaching implications for the sociopolitical and economic situation of the area.

“Our boundaries are supposed to the soft boundaries,” she said.

“If they begin to be the real borders, there [is] something abnormal with our system of government.

“As public representatives, [our job] is to be able to address that abnormality.”

Mshuqwana said what Matatiele needed was serious infrastructural development and the emergence of local businesses.

“We believe beyond any doubt that the advantages of being in the Eastern Cape far outweigh [those] of being in KwaZuluNatal,” she said.

Mshuqwana said the council had resolved to:

ý Reject the proposed Amendment Bill in its totality;

ý Never allow themselves to undermine cultures and traditions; and that

ý The deal [between the ANC and the African Independent Congress] was solely for political purposes.

Mshuqwana said it was their responsibility to ensure that the area remained rooted among “our people and continuously capacitate, advise and influence them positively”.

The council would support the Eastern Cape legislature to ensure effective and efficient communication with the people on the matter.

The municipality’s decision comes just days after AIC president Mandla Galo threatened to report Eastern Cape leaders to their national counterparts for trying to sabotage the deal.

Asked for comment on Matatiele’s decision to oppose the reincorporation, Galo said the municipality did not have the authority to decide for the people of Matatiele.

“We entered into a memorandum of agreement with the ANC in 2017.

“[The municipal authorities] cannot decide for the people.

“We are in a democratic dispensation where people can decide for themselves.”

It was reported last week that the Eastern Cape government and Calata House had questioned the terms of a coalition agreement made by their national structures in 2016, saying they could not find convincing reasons for Matatiele to be incorporated into KwaZulu-Natal.

However, Galo accused them of trying to sabotage the proposed move.

He alleged that several traditional leaders had been threatened by political leaders and told to influence their subjects against the move.

In helping the ANC to retain control of the Ekurhuleni metro following the 2016 local government elections, the AIC demanded that Matatiele be reincorporated into KwaZulu-Natal.

The Eastern Cape legislature will have its own public hearings on the Matatiele matter on April 22.