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The ANC’s Nefarious Plan

By

Dear Editor

My published comments about the Civil Society Coalition’s support for the planned imposition by the MEC of local government of a new executive system of governance in Nelson Mandela Bay have elicited animated and even agitated responses in various quarters.

Hardly surprising, the most vocal responders have been those who seek to obfuscate the issue in order to conceal the ANC’s nefarious agenda which underpins this intervention.

As I have said, this desperate gambit by the MEC has got nothing to do with service delivery. It is merely a ploy to save the fortunes of an ANC which is facing increasing rejection by residents.

In a Metro they once governed with a two-thirds majority their stock has fallen to a point where they only managed to achieve 39% of the vote in the November 2021 election.

That in essence is what drives their current desperation to cling to power by any means possible, including abusing local government legislation.

Let me be clear.

I fully support the involvement of civil society formations in efforts to take our city-region forward.

Elected office-bearers have no monopoly on wisdom. As stakeholders we all need to pull together in support of endeavours that seek to create an environment which offers our people a better quality of life and facilitates a conducive operating platform for the businesses that provide jobs for the community.

By that same token it falls upon the more vigilant among us to warn civil society formations when what they consider to be a noble act of intervening in the municipal impasse could well have been hijacked by elements with ulterior motives.

Yes there are many upright and honest people in the Civil Society Coalition who I personally have much respect for. But not all of them may realise that in their midst there are ill-intentioned elements who have been mobilised to use the structure to do the ANC’s bidding.

This is an old trick in the book. Some of us were in the trenches long enough in the past to know that this was one of the favoured tactics of the apartheid regime, planting its functionaries in legitimate people’s formations surreptitiously to drive its agenda and achieve its objectives.

The most vocal supporters of the MEC’s planned executive system are those who are trying to curry favour with the ANC provincial leadership with an eye on being rewarded with some crony deployment opportunities in the public service.

So why is the MEC’s attempt to impose an executive system in Nelson Mandela Bay flawed?

The enabling legislation (the Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998) lists instances where such a system can be introduced. They all have to do with service delivery.

Not one of them has to do with saving the fortunes of a failing political party which is facing increasing rejection by the electorate.

The ANC is on the brink of being removed from office in the Metro in a motion of no confidence and the MEC has stepped in at the 11th hour with an intervention which he hopes will help his comrades cling to power.

Why the motion of no confidence?

In this administration the ANC has spent all its time and energy, plus public resources, defending a municipal manager who has been fingered by the Special Investigating Unit in multi-million rand tender corruption.

They went to the extent of unlawfully ramming the individual’s appointment through in a Council meeting which did not have a quorum as required by municipal regulations.

In the face of this tolerance for corruption, those of us who have supported this multi-party government have been left with no choice but to accept that the ANC is unashamedly determined to put its political interests above everything else, including the welfare of the Metro’s residents.

So when the parties on the Council gave notice to remove them from power the ANC turned to their comrades in the provincial government to save them. The MEC duly obliged by gazetting his intention to change the governance system to one in which his comrades will be guaranteed representation in an Executive Committee system.

But is that what the legislation was intended for? To guarantee Executive positions for politicians who have failed the people of Nelson Mandela Bay?

Here is what is particularly cynical about the MEC’s plan.

Bhisho, the seat of the Provincial Government, falls under Buffalo City, a bankrupt Metro which has been run down by the governing ANC through maladministration – on the MEC’s watch.

With service delivery severely compromised right on his doorstep, has the MEC intervened there to change the governance system and put in place leaders who are better able to manage that Metro’s affairs?

Of course not. The simple reason is that his ANC comrades in that Council, unlike in Nelson Mandela Bay, hold a comfortable majority and are not in danger of being ejected from power in a vote of no confidence for bankrupting their municipality.

So the MEC is quite content to look away from the woes of the failed Metro right where his office is located and rush to Nelson Mandela Bay because our Metro is still cash flush and he considers it critical, for whatever motive, that the ANC continues to have control of the public purse.

Meanwhile, to help bring their nefarious plan to fruition, the ANC has mobilised stakeholder formations such as the Civil Society Coalition (CSC) to beat the drum for them as they try to usher in their new system.

True to plan, their agents on the CSC are beating the drum the loudest for the benefit of their political masters.

I however have reason to believe the rest of the members who may also be supportive of the plan will not be proud of themselves when they finally come to realise that this was never about service delivery. Instead a sinister political ploy is being laundered and legitimised under the auspices of their organisation.

Our position is that ANC operatives who have been determined this whole year to plunge our Metro into a political logjam solely for the defence of one senior official accused of corruption should not be rewarded with guaranteed positions in a new system clothed as an attempt to introduce stability and improve service delivery.

Those who support or are engaged in corruption deserve no reward. They instead should be facing serious consequences for their actions.

Various parties in the Council have already voted in the majority to reject the MEC’s ploy. Any further attempts to impose it unilaterally will be met with vigorous opposition and are destined to fail.

Regards

Khusta Jack

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Alan Straton

Chief Cook, Bottle Washer and Broom Mechanic at MyPE
Passionate about Port Elizabeth and definitely NOT packing for Perth. Alan's ethos is epitomised in the words of Nelson Mandela; "I have fought against white domination and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic and free society. If need be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die." See more articles by Alan.