Note to Broadcasters: Please find linked soundbites in English and Afrikaans by Cllr Arista Annandale.
The DA in the Mahikeng Local Municipality condemns the ANC’s internal factional battles that led to the cancelation of a Council meeting scheduled yesterday where the appointments of senior management officials were to be considered.
The Mahikeng Council was scheduled to consider and vote on the appointments of a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), and senior managers for Public Safety, Corporate Support Services, Socio-Economic Development and an acting senior manager for Planning and Development.
Council failed to meet a quorum because about 15 ANC Councillors submitted apologies shortly before the meeting. Many EFF Councillors also failed to show up for the meeting. This cannot be a coincidence, since it is understood that some ANC factions have aligned themselves with the EFF.
ANC Councillors held a caucus meeting before Council was intended to sit, so a quorum would have been reached had the ANC maintained discipline, to ensure all its members attended, however, it appears that the vying ANC factions cannot agree on the appointments of these senior managers.
This visible tug-of-war between the two ANC factions to appoint their preferred candidates has a negative impact on governance and service delivery. Yesterday’s drama follows a Council meeting held last week where all the agenda items dealing with the appointment of the CFO and senior managers were deferred because of a disagreement on the list of preferred candidates.
The delay in appointing senior managers directly impacts service delivery and underscores the ANC’s uncaring attitude towards residents of Mahikeng who are desperate for the supply of water and sanitation services.
To this end, the DA wrote to the Speaker, Cllr Gago Mathe, calling for an immediate Special Council meeting so that the reports on the candidates can be presented to Council. We will interrogate these reports to ensure that the candidates meet all the minimum qualifications, skills and experience requirements for their respective positions before we consider voting for or against the appointments. See the letter here.
However, considering the factional battles playing out, it may be that these individuals have already been politically compromised by the ANC’s factional infighting. This fight shows us exactly the disastrous consequences of the ANC’s cadre deployment policy, which is a deliberate attempt to gain control of, and access to, the municipality’s finances in a bid to line the pockets of cadres.
The DA will not involve itself with the ANC’s factional battles and cadre deployment programme which promotes bad governance, fraud and corruption. Should our own considerations on the recruitment panel’s recommendations on the preferred candidates cast any doubt on their commitment to the people of Mahikeng, we will vote against these appointments.
The people of Mahikeng deserve better than widespread corruption and poor services due to the ANC’s cadre deployment.
This year’s election is an opportunity to kick out the ANC and rebuild North West by registering to vote for the DA, a party with a proven track record of good governance and where we appoint municipal officials on merit.