South Africa's Constitution stipulates that the national government must help municipalities to function properly. And yet the municipalities under ANC control are a total disaster, which shows that the responsible department is unable to perform its constitutional duty.
The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) was recently unable to prepare its annual report in time and this undoubtedly indicates that is it incompetent. Thus, it is no surprise then that the municipalities under its control are chaotic and bankrupt.
"There is an utter lack of accountability among some officials who are indifferent, this even includes some of those with performance contracts. The ANC is reluctant to take a stand and address the issue by dismissing these officials seeing as they are members of the ANC."
The situation is similar at municipalities where there is little to no accountability and where trade unions just make things worse. Even the Auditor-General (AG) pointed out that municipalities lack the political will to take action against incompetent officials.
Municipalities' level of functionality is the lowest in 25 years due to various reasons, like poor management, maladministration and corruption. It seems that patronage of the ANC is a licence to loot and steal without having to bear any consequences.
"The ANC can only prove this statement wrong by dismissing the officials who do not meet the requirements of their performance contracts on all levels of government, and particularly in places where there has been marked deterioration, like Emfuleni."
The ANC owes it to the taxpayers of South Africa and the FF Plus will continue to fight back against the deterioration of our municipalities.
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