Bhisho, ANC fight Matatiele’s move to KZN

The Eastern Cape government and the ANC have questioned the terms of a coalition agreement made by their national structures in 2016, saying there were no convincing reasons for Matatiele to be incorporated into KwaZuluNatal.

The matter was discussed last week at the party’s provincial lekgotla in East London, as confirmed by ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi.

Both the government and ANC agreed that the political bargaining between African Independent Congress (AIC) and Ekurhuleni Metro ANC for the latter to hold on to its coalition rule of that metro in exchange for a deal to move Matatiele out of the province was not reason enough to enforce such a move.

Both the party and the provincial government instead want public hearings to be conducted by April for the Matatiele communities to voice their views on the proposed move, with the provincial ANC saying “if needs be, people should be allowed to vote on the matter”.

Ngcukayitobi on Friday said that the provincial ANC was not convinced about the reasons given for such a proposed move.

“The ANC lekgotla took a decision not to support the move as there are no convincing reasons.

“We don’t know the basis of such a decision, why it was taken and we are not even convinced that it is necessary,” Ngcukayitobi said.

He added that “it would be wrong for the politics of Ekurhuleni to affect demarcation in the Eastern Cape”.

Ngcukayitobi said the Matatiele community should be afforded an opportunity to be the final arbiters in the issue and that “people of that area should, out of their own wisdom, take such a decision themselves, even if it means they should vote on the matter”.

Cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa said public hearings to be led by the provincial legislature would take place in the area in April.

Xasa does not support the proposal to move Matatiele to KZN either. “That should not happen based on reasons that have something to do with Ekurhuleni Metro,” he said.

In April last year, the AIC and ANC’s then national leaders, led by then secretary-general Gwede Mantashe, agreed to ensure that Matatiele was incorporated back into KwaZulu-Natal.

This was after the two parties signed a memorandum of understanding outlining a process to reverse the move to the Eastern Cape that took place in 2005.

In the 2016 local government elections, the ANC in Ekurhuleni Metro received just under 50% of the vote.

It won 109 seats in that metro and needed 112 to obtain a majority in the council to ward off a coalition with opposition parties such as the DA and the EFF.

With the AIC’s four seats as its lobola, it entered a marriage with the ANC. Thanks to the coalition, the ANC retained Ekurhuleni – the only metro it controls in Gauteng – and Rustenburg in the North West.

But in return for staying in power in the East Rand metro, the ANC had to agree to move Matatiele back to KwaZulu-Natal, or else the AIC, which has deep roots in Matatiele, threatened to pull out of the coalition government.

In addition to the Matatiele deal the agreement also called for the opening of an agricultural college in Maluti, a township near Matatiele, as well as tarring of the region’s rural and provincial roads.

The deadline for the implementation of that agreement was the end of November last year.

Late last year cabinet also agreed in principle to look into the demarcation of boundaries to accommodate Matatiele back into KwaZulu-Natal.

Attempts to get comment from AIC spokesman Aubrey Mhlongo were unsuccessful at the time of writing.