The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) says that President Thabo Mbeki is quite right to criticise ruling party African National Congress (ANC) councillors for not doing their jobs — but it argues that words must be turned into action.
In a statement on Tuesday, DA local government spokesperson Willem Doman said: “A year after the local elections it is clear that many councillors are not effective. However, in an answer to a parliamentary question asked last year, President Mbeki admitted that only one councillor in the Eastern Cape had been fired.”
On Monday, at a South African Local Government Association conference, Mbeki lashed out at councillors who were not serving their constituencies, and he called for a more “hands-on” approach.
Doman said his party would be asking questions about whether these people have been removed from their jobs “as per the president’s promise. We would like to know how many councillors have been fired, or have resigned, for not doing their jobs.”
Mbeki, who remains ANC leader until December this year, recently promised that the ANC would dismiss councillors who were not doing their jobs properly.
“In the past the president has agreed with the DA in Parliament that political parties should be responsible for the disciplining of their councillors. The DA fully supports Mbeki’s call for the resignation or dismissal of councillors who do not serve their communities. Parties must take action against these councillors.”
Doman cited five examples of bad ANC councillors.
They included a ward councillor in Quarry Road in Durban where the residents had to march to attract the councillor’s attention to their lack of housing and toilets. A similar march was held to alert another Durban councillor from the Kennedy Road settlement to their housing and toilet plight.
Another councillor from Umlazi, also Durban, had sparked a march with residents calling for his resignation on the grounds that he was allegedly corrupt.
Doman said an Independent Democrats councillor owed eThekwini municipality (which embraces Durban) nearly R55Â 000 in unpaid rates and taxes while another Umlazi councillor had owed the council R17Â 097, although it appeared that about half of this sum had been paid.
Doman said there was reason to suspect that the problem with the rest of the country was even worse. “As the ANC governs most of the country, it is reasonable to believe that they have the lion’s share of councillors who need disciplining or dismissal.
“It is time the ANC took their leader’s remarks seriously. They must act in KwaZulu-Natal and in the rest of the country where the problem will be worse, otherwise it will be clear that they have totally abandoned the moral high ground,” Doman charged. — I-Net Bridge