ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula says his party will soon announce the removal of some mayors in municipalities across the Free State.
He was speaking in Bloemfontein on the weekend, where the ANC had its provincial January 8 birthday celebrations.
“We can no longer, as the ANC, send people to do work and then when things go wrong, we are blamed, and then we keep people for the sake of it. We need action, and that action you will see it here in this province,” he said.
Mbalula said the move to get rid of underperforming mayors is not meant to “victimise” anyone.
“This move is informed by scientific data, about the interventions that we are making, we support those that need support, but we can no longer, as the ANC, send people to do work, and the movement gets to be blamed when they do not do it,” he said.
A stern warning
Mbalula said the mayoral position is not ceremonial.
“When you are a mayor, you must be known in the community, you must attend even the funeral of a child who dies in the community,” he said.
He said the ANC will not simply focus on underperforming mayors, but also on underperforming councillors.
“You cannot be a councillor and not be able to attend to the complaints in your community,” he said.
Mbalula’s remarks come at the beginning of an election year when the country will vote for its local government leaders.
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The ANC’s strategy
Mbalula said the ANC has a strategy to regain lost support and build community confidence.
“We have six priorities that we have outlined in our January 8 statement, and we work very hard to win confidence but also to build a social contract with the people, so it’s not just about elections.
“This is about rekindling our connection with the people, we want to be among them and to provide leadership address their expectations.
“The 8 January statement talks about fixing local government and the economy, that is the message this year we say where we see challenges they must be fixed,” he said.
He said the provincial leadership of the ANC in the Free State will make further announcements on the leadership changes that will take place in Bloemfontein.
Mbalula’s remarks come at a time when Bloemfontein, the judicial capital of the country, is still under administration. His party is in charge of this province.
City of Roses under administration
Bloemfontein’s severe, long-standing financial mismanagement and widespread service delivery failures, including unauthorised spending, operating at a deficit, and the inability to provide basic services, prompted the national government to intervene. While there are still a mayor and council, the municipality is under administration.
According to reports from the Auditor General, the Human Rights Commission and various government oversight bodies, the Free State has some of the worst-run municipalities in the country.
Political analysis
Theo Neethling, a political analyst from the University of Free State (UFS) told The Citizen that changing mayors in the Free State will not yield the expected results for the ANC.
“The issue is that the problem is much deeper than the mayors. For more than a decade, the AG has issued a string of damning assessments of municipal governance in the Free State, so this is not a matter of sporadic or episodic failure; it is an issue of intrinsic institutional decay.
“We have seen that year after year, many municipalities in the Free State have failed to achieve clean audits, many received qualified opinions or disclaimers; others do not even submit financial statements on time.
“So, we are sitting with a chronic inability to meet even the basic reporting requirements,” he said.
Neethling said that despite all the challenges that municipalities in the Free State face. There has been no consequence management.
“Suddenly, the ANC wants to do something about that, but the fact is that the AG, over many years, has consistently pointed towards the failure of political and administrative leadership to act on audit findings, to implement corrective measures, or to hold officials and mayors accountable. So, as far as I am concerned, the ANC’s intervention is too little, too late,” he said.
Neethling also blamed cadre deployment and political interference in the governance problems of municipalities in the Free State.
“We see a systematic failure to professionalise administrations, and the AG’s findings amount to an indictment of municipal governance in the Free State municipalities. In the Free State, they are not just underperforming; they are structurally impaired.”
Neethling categorised the ANC’s intervention in the Free State as campaigning for the local government elections.
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