Bhisho adopts controversial Matatiele report

Amid an outcry from rival parties, the Bhisho legislature has adopted a controversial report stating that most Matatiele townspeople want to remain under Eastern Cape governance and oppose a plan to return the province to KwaZulu-Natal’s administration.

This report was compiled by the Bhisho legislature portfolio committee on cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) and tabled yesterday after public hearings attended by only 2000 people last week. There are more than 294000 residents in Matatiele.

Committee chairman Mninawa Nyusile recommended that the decision to introduce a Constitutional Amendment Bill for provincial boundaries relating to the Matatiele impasse should not rest with the minister of justice.

The Bhisho legislature sitting yesterday adopted the committee report despite resistance from the African Independent Congress (AIC) which claimed it had already obtained a concession from the ANC in Ekurhuleni to return Matatiele to KwaZulu-Natal.

But according to the committee report, several stakeholders in Matatiele had stated that “the people of Matatiele have nothing to do” with the deal by the national ANC and AIC in Ekurhuleni, where the AIC traded their council votes to ensure that an ANC mayor was elected.

The report found that the reason most common among stakeholders wanting to stay in the Eastern Cape was that there were cultural differences between the two provinces.

These people had felt, the report states, that “KwaZulu-Natal has a single monarch recognising only the Zulu culture”.

But a sizeable section of Matatiele stakeholders, including the hawkers’ and caterers’ associations, wanted to be out of the Eastern Cape.

The ANC Matatiele sub-region is in favour of returning to KwaZulu-Natal rule.

The report summarises this side of the debate as holding a view that “the Eastern Cape is corrupt, hence the poor service delivery”.

The portfolio committee – and subsequently the legislature – adopted the report despite the admission that the public hearings were held in just two venues, and attendance by 2000 people from 26 municipal wards “reduced meaningful representation of the consultation to the areas”.

The committee blamed this on a “constrained budget” allocated for the mission but Nyusile could not provide the budget amount when asked by DA leader in the legislature Bobby Stevenson.

During a heated house sitting debate yesterday, the DA’s Veliswa Mvenya rejected the unavailability of funds blamed for the sparse public hearings, saying the legislature was throwing money at non-core areas.

“More than R2-million was spent just on the marquee for Sopa but we do not have money to do our core mandate of law-making and consultation, which is the cornerstone of democracy. This is going to be challenged. The DA rejects this report.”

The UDM also rejected the report saying the process was flawed.

COPE representatives called for a referendum, while the AIC accused the ANC-led Matatiele municipal council of manipulating the whole process with a pre-determined outcome.

ANC chief whip Fundile Gade said the cause of the Matatiele impasse was a competition for a bigger slice of budget from the two provincial governments.

“What we are expecting from KZN is for them to release Kokstad to Eastern Cape and we release Mzimkhulu as agreed in 2008, not this debate we are having about Matatiele,” said Gade.

Gade said the ANC favoured the adoption of the committee report, which then happened. — zingisam@dispatch.co.za