Note to Editors: Please find the attached debate speech by CJ Steyl as delivered in the NWPL today.
Honourable Speaker,
Now, while it is a noble sentiment that the North West Provincial Government should support local municipalities to capacitate and improve the finance units of municipalities, the reality is that no matter how this support is given, it will not work until we deal with cadre deployment and the political problem, the ANC.
Cadre deployment remains the biggest obstacle to good financial management and improved service delivery, whether it be in local, provincial, and national government departments or all state-owned entities.
How can we debate here today that a provincial government, which itself is failing miserably to ensure good financial management, must now go and ensure sound financial management practices in municipalities?
It’s like asking a criminal to ensure effective law enforcement. It is bizarre.
Through you, Speaker,
Honourable Moema, the North West Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs will spend about R300 million to support and capacitate municipalities in the current financial year.
That is R300 million this year; it will be R320 million next year; it was around R285 million last year… before this term is up, by 2029, COGTA will have spent close to R2 billion to support and capacitate North West municipalities, and it will have nothing to show for it.
Honourable Speaker,
We possibly have one of the best legislative frameworks that regulate government spending in the world.
Whether you look at the Public Finance Management Act or the Municipal Finance Management Act, there are key requirements in law that should prevent financial mismanagement – but the ANC in government has become so effective at subverting the law that we see corruption and looting and tender-nepotism deny millions of people the services they deserve.
Honourable Moema, through you, Speaker,
It is because despite the law, despite the needs and interests of South Africans, ANC cadres will always prioritise themselves, then the ANC.
Then the people of North West must be happy with the small change that is left to deliver water, electricity, refuse collection and road maintenance.
It has become so bad that we hear that in Bojanala, it is alleged that Cllr Winnie Sono apparently forced EPWP beneficiaries to join the ANC by selling R40 memberships.
And if selling ANC membership for a public works job opportunity is not vulgar enough, she then pockets the money. The ANC said they never received the membership fees.
It is alleged that this ANC Councillor Sono also then forced these EPWP workers to clean her house and made them pay R200 for transport.
An ANC cadre must eat before the ANC as a Party can eat. The people must wait.
Honourable Moema, this is the same ANC you now expect to capacitate and develop municipal finance units.
Honourable Speaker,
Until there is consequence management, until there is accountability, until corrupt politicians and officials are issued with prison uniforms, whether we spend R300 million or R2 billion to capacitate finance units in municipalities, no matter the support, no matter the capacity-building programmes, nothing will change.
Because the problem is the ANC. The problem is a political problem. Cadre Deployment is a political programme of the ANC adopted here in Mafikeng in 1997.
Look at the collapsed state of Mahikeng today because of ANC cadre deployment.
And the way we deal with a political problem is with a political solution – that is to say, people must vote these ANC thugs out of local government next year and vote DA-led governments in.
Because the fact of the matter is, like President Cyril Ramaphosa said, DA-governed municipalities outperform ANC-led municipalities.
President Ramaphosa said it. StatsSA has been saying it. And the Auditor-General has said it for the last 25 years. DA governments are better governments.
We see it in the GNU. DA-led ministries are far outperforming every other single ministry.
And the reason for that is because where the DA governs, we ensure the sacrosanct separation of politics and government administrations.
We appoint qualified, experienced, and skilled officials in finance units that follow the law and not political instructions, unlike ANC cadres who decide which contract goes to whom and who should be paid when at Black Lounge under the cover of darkness.
That is why, when you look at the AG’s consolidated general report on local government audit outcomes for the 2023/24 financial year, it clearly sets out the difference between ANC-led municipalities and DA-governed municipalities.
The Western Cape recorded 17 municipalities with clean audits, while North West recorded none.
In the Western Cape, the price tag for use of consultants by municipalities topped R37 million, while North West municipalities spent R344 million on consultants – the highest expenditure on this line item in the country!
Western Cape municipalities recorded five material irregularities. Three were resolved, two are outstanding.
North West municipalities recorded 60 material irregularities; 16 were resolved, while 38 remain outstanding.
Needless to say, the DA-governed municipalities, Kouga in the Eastern Cape and uMngeni in KwaZulu-Natal, were all excluded from the disaster of local government under the ANC.
The DA-governed Midvaal in Gauteng obtained its 11th consecutive clean audit. The only municipality in Gauteng with a clean audit.
In conclusion, Speaker, through you,
Honourable Moema,
Now if you take the R300 million allocated by this provincial government to capacitate North West municipalities and the R344 million spent on consultants and add the billions spent towards payroll for Municipal Managers, CFOs and finance and supply chain officials, you see that any support or development to improve the internal capacity of municipal finance units is wasteful expenditure; it has been a failure, and it will continue to be a failure until the political problem is addressed with a political solution.
And the political solution to the political problem that is the ANC, logically, is to vote DA in 2026.
I thank you.