BAKANG MOKOTO
THE ANC Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) in the North West has recalled five mayors from various municipalities across the province. This was announced by the ANC IPC coordinator, Hlomani Chauke during a media briefing at Rustenburg on Friday.
The affected municipalities are Mahikeng, Ditsobotla, Maquassi Hills, Matlosana Local Municipalities and the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality.
Chauke said they have reached this decision after they have concluded their rigorous assessment of various municipalities in the province. He said the committee has noted with concern, the debilitating state of administration and the dismal failure of governance in most of the municipalities.
“The failure of the municipal leadership to provide the requisite oversight has resulted in the collapse of the municipal administration. Even more, perturbing for the IPC, is the inability of these municipalities to discharge their constitutional mandate and provide much needed services to our communities.
“These assessments were scientific in approach and informed by, amongst others, the continued regression in the audit outcomes over the past few years as reported by the Auditor General,” he said.
Chauke added that the AG’s pejorative report highlighted a number of instances of non-compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), mismanagement of the public funds, financial irregularities and lack of systems of accountability including consequence management.
He further said the committee also noted the ongoing political instability in various municipalities which led to the disruption of the key mandate of the ANC-governed municipalities to provide meaningful service delivery to people.
“These disruptions have manifested themselves in different ways including through violent attacks on councillors, municipal employees, leaders of labour unions and even more worrisome, members of the community. This violence has resulted in some community members burning properties belonging to councillors.
“The ANC Constitution enjoins the IPC to amongst others, supervise and direct the work of the ANC and all its organs in the province, including the ANC provincial and local government caucuses.
“The instability in the municipalities has serious implications for the ANC which contests elections as a registered political party drawing support from all sections of South African society,” said Chauke.
He said the committee has in line with the ANC constitution, gone through great lengths to guide and reign over its deployees. Chauke said , however, some of these councillors have remained defiant and uncooperative.
“Consequently, the IPC has resolved to recall its Troikas in five municipalities. The troikas comprise of Mayors, Speakers and Chief Whips. Ordinarily, the IPC would not have preferred to recall these deployees given the reality that local government elections will be held next year.
“However, we can no longer overstretch the growing impatience of our communities with our public representatives. This decision is a consequence of broad consultations with the national leadership of the ANC, our leagues and alliance partners,” he said.
Chauke further said as they effect these changes, the ANC will require maximum unity among all its members, supporters and society. He said these changes will enable them to sharpen their capacity to advance and defend the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).
“The IPC will expect members of the ANC to close ranks and to build well-oiled machinery, capable of uniting the people of the province and the broadest range of all sectors of society to accelerate service delivery.
“To achieve these, the ANC expects all its members to display high political discipline as a necessary ingredient without which, it will be almost impossible to deliver basic services as expected by our people,” said Chauke.
(SOURCE: TaungNews)