Cadre crisis: Incompetent municipal administrations in North West, Free State and KwaZulu-Natal must be removed
Municipal administrations in North West, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal must be held accountable for the serious deterioration of their municipal areas before numerous local economies collapse completely, says AfriForum. The civil rights organisation has therefore launched a petition to demand, among other things, that corrupt and incompetent municipal administrations finally be held accountable for this deterioration. AfriForum will raise this issue publicly if the restoration of competent leadership and basic service delivery is not prioritised in these provinces.
Jaco Grobbelaar, AfriForum’s Head of the Central Region, says the continued decline of municipalities can be attributed to years of cadre deployment, mismanagement, corruption and the appointment of incompetent officials. While communities are left without water, electricity and basic service delivery, billions of rand are wasted every year on corrupt and incapable municipal administrations.
The Free State stands out as one of the provinces that is suffering the most from severe administrative failures. None of the municipalities in this province has received a clean audit, according to the Auditor-General’s audit report on local governance for the 2023/2024 financial year. All the while infrastructure, water networks and sewerage systems are on the verge of collapse. The Auditor-General found that water losses in the Free State amounted to more than R3,7 billion between 2016 and 2023 as a result of water leaks, poor infrastructure and illegal connections. Some municipalities lose more than 80% of their water before it reaches residents.
The situation in North West is equally disastrous. Reports by the Auditor-General have for years pointed to widespread mismanagement, irregular expenditure and the complete absence of accountability. No clean audits have been achieved in recent years and communities are forced to live with dilapidated roads and water interruptions.
In KwaZulu-Natal, several municipalities are now officially classified as dysfunctional. Parliamentary committees had to intervene after the Auditor-General exposed poor management, corruption and a lack of consequence management.
“The deterioration of municipal infrastructure directly affects ordinary residents. Millions of litres of drinking water are lost, sewage flows into rivers and neighbourhoods, infrastructure is not maintained, taxes and rates increase while service delivery collapses, and communities have to repair roads and undertake projects themselves to ensure basic service delivery,” says Grobbelaar.
“These crises are caused by the continued deployment of ANC cadres because when incompetent individuals are appointed to key positions, poor management, corruption and deterioration are inevitable.”
In North West, the ANC-led local government recently redeployed several mayors and senior officials amid serious service delivery problems. Meanwhile, several mayors in the Free State have been suspended after municipalities under their management virtually collapsed. Yet political protection and cadre deployment remain the norm.
AfriForum’s petition therefore demands that cadre deployment in municipalities, specifically in North West, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal, be stopped; that corrupt officials be held to account; that the appointment of competent and qualified personnel be prioritised; and that businesses and civil society organisations be allowed to help deliver services in cases where municipalities fail.
“Communities can no longer pay the price for political experiments and incompetent administration. South Africans deserve functional municipalities, clean water, safe infrastructure and accountable governance. If the ANC cannot deliver this, it must hand over the reins to the community so that residents can carry out service delivery themselves,” Grobbelaar concludes.
AfriForum calls on all residents of North West, the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal to sign the petition and jointly put pressure on the government to stop this decline.
Sign the petition now: https://tinyurl.com/3xwj9c3f.
