ANC worse than era of apartheid – EFF

Call for EMLM council to be dissolved

The EFF caucus in Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) has indicated the ANC government is far worse than that of the apartheid era due to its continued mistreatment and subjection to poverty of the people who voted it into power.

This was said by the party’s chief whip, Luthando Amos, when asked about the kind of changes he hoped the majority party would implement in 2019 to ensure adequate service delivery in EMLM.

Amos said the ANC was politically bankrupt and continued to deploy incompetent people in the local authority.

“ANC councillors only care about their pockets and have no regard for the communities they are supposed to serve. Cadre deployment is among the biggest problems, because all they do is move a corrupt individual from one municipality to another, regardless of whether they qualify for the job.

“In 2018, we were faced with countless power outages and roads in the townships are riddled with potholes and all they keep saying is that there is no money. The apartheid government was far better than what the ANC is doing to the people of this country.” Amos said change would only come about if the current council self-dissolved and a new council was elected.

DA councillor Chris de Wet said 2018 represented the worst year in the municipal history of Komani and other towns, including villages, under EMLM’s jurisdiction.

“The decline in the municipal leadership and administration has been so drastic that EMLM is financially bankrupt and was placed under administration.

“The DA represents the only realistic hope to the communities of EMLM to implement the changes necessary to make the municipality a viable entity. The DA will expect drastic changes to be made in 2019 to achieve positive results. The current ANC leadership lacks political will, leadership skills and the intent to govern properly.”

De Wet said a full forensic audit covering the administration of EMLM since its inception in 2016 needed to be commissioned, with specific instructions to fully investigate the maladministration and mismanagement of municipal finances.

UDM councillor Mthuthuzeli Hokolo said as long as the current ANC leadership was in power, there would not be any positive changes – either politically or administratively.

“No changes can be achieved in one year if they have been failing the people for the past five years. The ANC in EMLM keeps pertinent information from opposition parties who could possibly give good advice on how to handle matters. For instance, the removal of former municipal manager Chris Magwangqana was a bad decision which brought the municipality to its knees.

“When Magwangqana was still with EMLM, Eskom was duly paid, but with the administrator, Vuyo Mlokothi, in place, we were constantly threatened by Eskom because of lack of payment.”

COPE councillor Nomazotsho Kopolo said the party was ready to eradicate corruption and committed to ensuring service delivery to the people.

ANC Chris Hani regional executive committee secretary Lusanda Sizani was asked for comment, but had not responded at the time of going to press.