Anne Eveleth
Pietermaritzburg Mayor Rob Haswell’s call this week for the Durban-Maritzburg corridor to become South Africa’s 10th province — divided by soft boundaries from the rest of conflict-ridden KwaZulu/Natal — has struck at the heart of the incessant demarcation wrangles stalling Durban’s local government process.
Won by the African National Congress in last year’s contentious provincial election, the corridor’s combined local government strength could pose a powerful bulwark to the Inkatha Freedom Party- controlled provincial government.
While Haswell’s ANC local government structure has since found common ground with the IFP in Greater Pietermaritzburg, such agreements have proven far more elusive for the provincial powerhouse of the Durban metropolis. Bickering over boundaries and inclusion of tribal areas; back-room alliances and accusations of gerrymandering have ground the local government transition here to a virtual halt.
The tentative ANC–IFP “non-statutory” alliance which grew during Durban’s early transitional negotiation stage has given way to shadier alliances and a bitter struggle for control of the Transitional Metropolitan Council (TMC) — now led by IFP Mayor Sipho Ngwenya — as the strategic importance of metropolitan power grows clearer.
With 55 percent of KwaZulu/Natal’s total economic output and 45 percent of its people, ANC councillor and University of Natal economist Peter Corbett says the Durban metro could provide a powerful counterweight to the provincial government.
Although the R2,5-billion to R3-billion combined municipal budgets of areas included in the metro are overshadowed by the R14-billion provincial budget, Corbett argues the metro will have far greater power in determining its financial priorities than the province, whose money is predestined for education, health, housing and other things.
“Local government will have a far freer hand in determining the amount spent on … libraries, clinics, electricity, water, sewage, airports, refuse collection, etc … giving it much more clout in the eyes of the public,” said Corbett.
ANC KwaZulu/Natal local government spokesman Mike Sutcliffe added that “the metro has enormous delivery potential in terms of the RDP, job creation, and addressing crime and violence … In practical terms, the city has the potential to deliver the same number of housing sites as the whole of the provincial
The ANC believes this potential –and the prospect the ANC will control it — underlies IFP KwaZulu/Natal local government minister Peter Miller’s recent rejection of the Demarcation Board’s proposed municipal boundaries. Miller wants the metro divided into five larger municipalities, instead of the nine smaller ones proposed by the board. Sutcliffe says Miller is trying to “manipulate a victory by manipulating the
The ANC contends Miller’s proposal — which could see nearly 70 percent of Durban’s population drawn into two municipalities — is aimed at ensuring IFP control by merging ANC strongholds, like the massive Umlazi township and KwaMashu, with white, Indian and coloured areas.
In terms of the Local Government Transition Act, a pseudo-apartheid situation will prevail for the next five years, with white, Indian and coloured voters guaranteed 50 percent of ward seats. For areas like Umlazi and KwaMashu, the Kempton Park deal reduces their voting power to an equal footing with less populous, largely white areas in their municipality. This bolsters the chances that the IFP — which secured significant white support in the last election — could take control of the metro, even if it does poorly in black areas.
While these disputes rage on, the fight for inclusion of tribal areas on the city’s outskirts is just