AT A recent New Age business briefing, Eastern Cape premier Phumulo Masualle, cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) MEC Fikile Xasa and the two new metro mayors, Danny Jordaan and Alfred Mtsi, put on a less than convincing show regarding their claims of a turnaround in the administrative and political performance in the Eastern Cape and its two metros.
There is something supremely ironic about a government that has systematically led all three spheres of government away from “basic” administrative and governance principles and practices through the implementation of cadre deployment over a period of 21 years, now wanting to go “back to basics”.
This irony is all the more reinforced by Nelson Mandela Bay Metro mayor Jordaan saying “political interference from outside the official administrative structures of the NMBM will not be tolerated”.
He went on to say “the administration of the metro will not be undermined by external interference” and, “if anyone phones the municipal manager from outside the metro to give instructions, they will be in trouble!”
First of all, in this regard, Jordaan would do well to remember his appointment was as a direct result of external interference by Luthuli House.
His appointment is an archetypal example of “cadre deployment” by a government that refuses to hold its loyal public representatives and civil servants to account and chooses rather to deploy and redeploy them, than to ensure there are consequences to non-performance.
So Jordaan would do well to remember the adage, “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”.
The greatest irony though at this very partisan event (local DA councillors only received invitations minutes before the deadline to RSVP) was that both the premier and the MEC claimed the event marked the “end of political instability” and that “heads will roll” where non-performance and poor service delivery was the order of the day.
Their credibility and the ANC’s credibility in this regard is in tatters for a whole range of reasons, as history shows that those cadres whose heads should have rolled haven’t.
The recent redeployment of certain executive councillors from Buffalo City involved and implicated in the Nelson Mandela funeral fraud scam and certain executive councillors responsible for service delivery collapse in the NMBM, to the National Council of Provinces and the Provincial legislature, belie this claim.
Their claims that they are “swift to act” also ring hollow in the ears of those who experience the exact opposite in this regard. In fact, the ANC has become renowned for “shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic” whilst the country is listing dangerously.
Xasa also used the Makana municipality as an example of the ANC acting against people responsible for wrongdoing. Unless I’ve missed something, no-one I know of has been held responsible or fired or prosecuted for the parlous state of affairs in this crippled municipality.
As for forensic audits being used to get to the bottom of maladministration and corruption, these self-same people have become notorious for their non-action against those implicated in wrongdoing.
The Kabusso and Pikoli reports have not been acted upon and the National Treasury investigation into the now notorious IPTS bus service in Port Elizabeth has also not led to anyone being held to account despite the wasteful expenditure of hundreds of millions of rands.
Perhaps the issue of greatest irony and concern though is that the national Department of Human Settlements will not allocate its R1.4-billion housing grant to the NMBM’s housing directorate. This due to its disastrous reputation of under-performance, maladministration and shameless corruption. Both the current and previous NMBM mayors have to date refused to investigate this state of affairs.
They have also not acted against those presiding over these matters. This despite certain officials allegedly coming to work in bulletproof vests, flanked by bodyguards. (This status quo speaks volumes about the woeful situation in this directorate.)
In this regard, South Africans are starting to feel the consequences of corruption and maladministration in their everyday lives.
These imposters are the enemy of fairness and opportunity in society and undermine the hard-won freedom of all South Africans.
I’d like to remind both mayors Jordaan and Mtsi that they are not the first mayoral changes in their respective metros. In fact there have been so many over the past few years that it is difficult to keep count. This in itself reinforces the reality that the ANC has little credibility in regard to fixing what is broken. They should also be cognisant of the fact that their political bosses don’t tolerate independent thought, especially if it leads to any efforts at combating corruption.
The instability at local government level is not merely a municipal malaise, it is a consequence of internal division and factionalism in the ANC.
The situation at municipal level will not change as long as the ANC continues to allow a situation such as the one in which the former NMBM municipal manager, Msengana Ndlela, was hounded out of her post by ANC politicians refusing to be held to account. This impasse did not only come at a cost of R3-million to taxpayers, but caused even greater instability in the metro.
Lastly, the said gentlemen should also realise that if they expect the private sector to assist in turning the economic reality of this province and its major cities around, they will have to stop treating them with such disdain.
They will also have to eradicate the policy ambiguity that prevails between the ANC’s support of the National Development Plan (NDP) and the policies espoused by their alliance partners that are diametrically opposed to the NDP.
If unemployment is not immediately addressed by both the state and private sector this country and province and these two cities will face a very grave future. No Sirs, as long as the current situation is allowed to prevail without any tangible evidence to the contrary, no-one will believe the four of you.
The ANC leadership should know that, if you build anything on a foundation of gold it will sustain all scrutiny; if you build on a foundation of straw it cannot withstand any scrutiny.
Athol Trollip is an MPL, the DA Eastern Cape leader, and the DA’s mayoral candidate for NMBM
Basic scrutiny shows ANC turnaround built on straw
There is something supremely ironic about a government that has systematically led all three spheres of government away from “basic” administrative and governance principles and practices through the implementation of cadre deployment over a period of 21 years, now wanting to go “back to basics”.
This irony is all the more reinforced by Nelson Mandela Bay Metro mayor Jordaan saying “political interference from outside the official administrative structures of the NMBM will not be tolerated”.
He went on to say “the administration of the metro will not be undermined by external interference” and, “if anyone phones the municipal manager from outside the metro to give instructions, they will be in trouble!”
First of all, in this regard, Jordaan would do well to remember his appointment was as a direct result of external interference by Luthuli House.
His appointment is an archetypal example of “cadre deployment” by a government that refuses to hold its loyal public representatives and civil servants to account and chooses rather to deploy and redeploy them, than to ensure there are consequences to non-performance.
So Jordaan would do well to remember the adage, “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander”.
The greatest irony though at this very partisan event (local DA councillors only received invitations minutes before the deadline to RSVP) was that both the premier and the MEC claimed the event marked the “end of political instability” and that “heads will roll” where non-performance and poor service delivery was the order of the day.
Their credibility and the ANC’s credibility in this regard is in tatters for a whole range of reasons, as history shows that those cadres whose heads should have rolled haven’t.
The recent redeployment of certain executive councillors from Buffalo City involved and implicated in the Nelson Mandela funeral fraud scam and certain executive councillors responsible for service delivery collapse in the NMBM, to the National Council of Provinces and the Provincial legislature, belie this claim.
Their claims that they are “swift to act” also ring hollow in the ears of those who experience the exact opposite in this regard. In fact, the ANC has become renowned for “shifting the deck chairs on the Titanic” whilst the country is listing dangerously.
Xasa also used the Makana municipality as an example of the ANC acting against people responsible for wrongdoing. Unless I’ve missed something, no-one I know of has been held responsible or fired or prosecuted for the parlous state of affairs in this crippled municipality.
As for forensic audits being used to get to the bottom of maladministration and corruption, these self-same people have become notorious for their non-action against those implicated in wrongdoing.
The Kabusso and Pikoli reports have not been acted upon and the National Treasury investigation into the now notorious IPTS bus service in Port Elizabeth has also not led to anyone being held to account despite the wasteful expenditure of hundreds of millions of rands.
Perhaps the issue of greatest irony and concern though is that the national Department of Human Settlements will not allocate its R1.4-billion housing grant to the NMBM’s housing directorate. This due to its disastrous reputation of under-performance, maladministration and shameless corruption. Both the current and previous NMBM mayors have to date refused to investigate this state of affairs.
They have also not acted against those presiding over these matters. This despite certain officials allegedly coming to work in bulletproof vests, flanked by bodyguards. (This status quo speaks volumes about the woeful situation in this directorate.)
In this regard, South Africans are starting to feel the consequences of corruption and maladministration in their everyday lives.
These imposters are the enemy of fairness and opportunity in society and undermine the hard-won freedom of all South Africans.
I’d like to remind both mayors Jordaan and Mtsi that they are not the first mayoral changes in their respective metros. In fact there have been so many over the past few years that it is difficult to keep count. This in itself reinforces the reality that the ANC has little credibility in regard to fixing what is broken. They should also be cognisant of the fact that their political bosses don’t tolerate independent thought, especially if it leads to any efforts at combating corruption.
The instability at local government level is not merely a municipal malaise, it is a consequence of internal division and factionalism in the ANC.
The situation at municipal level will not change as long as the ANC continues to allow a situation such as the one in which the former NMBM municipal manager, Msengana Ndlela, was hounded out of her post by ANC politicians refusing to be held to account. This impasse did not only come at a cost of R3-million to taxpayers, but caused even greater instability in the metro.
Lastly, the said gentlemen should also realise that if they expect the private sector to assist in turning the economic reality of this province and its major cities around, they will have to stop treating them with such disdain.
They will also have to eradicate the policy ambiguity that prevails between the ANC’s support of the National Development Plan (NDP) and the policies espoused by their alliance partners that are diametrically opposed to the NDP.
If unemployment is not immediately addressed by both the state and private sector this country and province and these two cities will face a very grave future. No Sirs, as long as the current situation is allowed to prevail without any tangible evidence to the contrary, no-one will believe the four of you.
The ANC leadership should know that, if you build anything on a foundation of gold it will sustain all scrutiny; if you build on a foundation of straw it cannot withstand any scrutiny.
Athol Trollip is an MPL, the DA Eastern Cape leader, and the DA’s mayoral candidate for NMBM
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