The MK party says the alleged harassment of Vusi Mhlongo caused delays in it filing court papers in its electoral case (Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
The uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party’s top leadership has spent the past week working the streets of the Thabazimbi local municipality ahead of the by-election on 4 December in which the entire Limpopo council is up for grabs.
All 12 wards and 11 proportional representation seats will be contested by a total of 400 candidates from 21 parties — and five independents — in the most significant by-election since the 29 May national and provincial poll.
The MK party and the ANC, which had held 11 wards in the 23-seat council before it was dissolved, will be contesting all 12 wards, as will the Democratic Alliance (DA), which had held four seats in the council until October. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) will also contest all 12 wards.
MK party spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela said they had campaigned intensely in the municipality, which they were taking “as seriously as a heart attack”.
“We have registered in every ward in the municipality and we are ready to contest,” Ndhlela said.
Party deputy president John Hlophe and secretary general Floyd Shivambu have both campaigned in Thabazimbi in the build-up to the by-election.
It will be the first major test of the MK party’s ability to pull voters at by-elections beyond the borders of KwaZulu-Natal, and its first opportunity — at least theoretically — to take control of an entire local government. The ANC took 74% in the province in May, the EFF 12% and the MK Party 1%.
The Limpopo province and the National Council of the Provinces (NCOP), in consultation with Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa, placed the council under administration in terms of section 139 of the Constitution in October.
This followed several years of instability caused by the lack of an outright majority in the council, which has had 12 municipal managers in 13 years and which had parallel political and management structures at the time it was dissolved.
At the time of the dissolution, Limpopo Premier Phophi Ramathuba said that instead of trying to meet turnaround deadlines and cooperating with the province, the council had taken it to the high court.
“Instead of working together with us for service provision and good governance, they took us to court, fighting to stay in power and forgot about the interests of the residents they serve,’ Ramathuba said.
The ANC first lost its majority in the council in 2016, while 2021 also delivered a hung council and a power struggle between the ANC and a DA-led coalition had raged since.
This resulted in parallel councils being elected by the two sides, who appointed parallel councils with two sets of mayors, speakers, municipal managers and chief financial offices.
The two sides took each other to court to legitimise motions of no confidence they had brought each other, with the infighting resulting in a collapse of service delivery and governance and sparking the intervention by the province and the NCOP.
Municipal staff went unpaid for three months as a result of the paralysis that gripped the council, which also failed to pay for employee benefits. Staff were also dismissed in a series of political purges by both sides.
The council owed Magalies Water more than R180 million and Eskom R300 million at the time the intervention took place.
The administrators running the municipality were given a mandate to revoke acting positions, pay staff and reinstate council workers who were dismissed as a result of the political instability.
During a visit to the municipality by the NCOP in early October, cooperative governance MEC Basikopo Makamu told MPs it had spent only 40% of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant at the end of June, one month before the end of the financial year.
The grant is meant for upgrading infrastructure and dealing with backlogs in underserviced areas and for ensuring the provision of water, sanitation, roads and other basic services.
The committee found the council to be significantly dysfunctional, effectively bankrupt and unable to pay creditors.