DA federal chairperson Helen Zille hailed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s use of her party’s local governance record as a model to be emulated by ANC councillors, saying she hopes the whole country will take note.
But some ANC councillors rejected the assertion, saying praising the DA is tantamount to sabotaging the party.
Zille was responding to remarks made by Ramaphosa at a meeting with more than 6,000 ANC councillors from across the country at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.
He urged the councillors to seek guidance from their DA counterparts on how to successfully manage municipalities, specifically highlighting Cape Town and Stellenbosch as examples of sound administration.
Ramaphosa said it was painful that each time the auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke presents reports to cabinet, her office highlights that ANC municipalities are not doing well.
“Those municipalities that do best are not ANC-controlled municipalities ... they are often DA-controlled municipalities,” he said. “We need to ask ourselves, what is it that they are doing that is better than what we are doing? And there is nothing wrong with us saying, ‘We want to go and see what Cape Town is doing’.
“We cannot forever stay at the bottom. It hurts me deeply when I continue to see that our municipalities sometimes tend to move even backwards. And you are the people who can improve that.”
Zille said this was not the first time Ramaphosa has used the DA’s governance as the benchmark for good service delivery.
“The president is right, competition is important in the democracy, and he is also right that if you compare ANC government to DA government, the DA government is by far better. It is important for the president to recognise this, and I think the whole country will take note,” Zille said.
The DA ceased the moment by sharing on social media Ramaphosa’s quotes praising its governance record.
The ANC aims to find solutions to widespread service delivery failures in the country’s 257 municipalities that are led by it.
Ramaphosa said it was unacceptable to have water leaks and sewage leaks where ANC councillors live. “You should be the first to know, and you must do something about it within 48 hours,” he said.
ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe accused the party’s councillors of being good at singing.
“I know that we have a lot of singing councillors, but we have no councils. You all sing well, but capacity dololo [nothing]. That is the council we are having. Comrades who are councillors, leaders of the ANC, who make noise when a meeting is under way. What kind of leadership is that?” Mantashe asked.
I know that we have a lot of singing councillors, but we have no councils. You all sing well, but capacity dololo [nothing]. That is the council we are having. Comrades who are councillors, leaders of the ANC, who make noise when a meeting is under way
— ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe
Protea Glen ward 135 councillor Phelelani Sindani said Ramaphosa’s statement must be understood in the context of the government of local unity, where collaboration across political lines is encouraged.
“From that point of view, the statement of the president is welcomed. But from the political point of view, I don’t think he was supposed to even go as far as that. It would have been correct for the president to say there are other municipalities that are doing better than the ANC,” Sindani said.
“The platform in which he delivered this message makes it seem like he wants to be like Mandela, accommodating the very same people who are oppressing us.
Praising the DA in an ANC meeting is sabotaging the ANC. It would have been more understandable if he were addressing all councillors, not just us.”
Pennyville ward 68 councillor Msimelo Lobi said he agreed with Ramaphosa.
“But when you check the difference, DA municipalities collect revenue from residents. Our municipalities depend mainly on grants, which makes it difficult to perform at the same level,” Lobi said.
“In Cape Town people pay for services. In Soweto people don’t want to pay for electricity. Another issue is stability. The DA doesn’t change councillors often, while in the ANC there’s constant reshuffling,” he said. “I don’t agree that we are not capacitated. I, for one, have an engineering background and went to Unisa to do my economics and management science as I was trying to capacitate myself.
“DA councillors have researchers and all the support, and it becomes easy for them to know what is happening. There is nothing much of engineering I am doing when I am sitting in a council meeting. Meanwhile, DA councillors are able to give advice using their law qualifications.”
Mapetla ward 16 councillor Gift Mathe rejected Ramaphosa’s comparison. “There are councillors who are doing well, but we don’t put it in the public domain like the DA does,” Mathe argued.
“When water is secured, no-one reports on it. We meet residents halfway with vegetable parcels, ensure learners get breakfast at school and provide destitute families with social burials every week. We solve household issues daily in our offices, but we don’t announce it. That doesn’t mean we aren’t working.”
Political analyst Levy Ndou, who has assessed the state of service delivery across the country, added that there was nothing wrong with learning from others if the goal is to do what is right.
“The DA is doing well in the Western Cape, largely because residents pay their municipal rates, and municipalities have the funds needed to run their affairs,” he said. “But it’s not only about money. The DA is also very particular when it comes to hiring people in municipalities. They don’t compromise on skill and quality, something the ANC has unfortunately failed to do.
“The real question now is whether there will be the political will to ensure that the right people are employed. The ANC has acknowledged that part of its failure lies in not attracting or appointing skilled individuals to municipalities.
“The performance of municipalities is already in the public domain. It’s time to be honest with politicians.”
Political and governance analyst Sandile Swana said Ramaphosa’s statement was a disgrace. “Ramaphosa needs to admit that the Polokwane slate and Zuma slate collapsed good governance in SA. The DA governance has not met or surpassed the record of Thabo Mbeki in terms of governance on a number of indicators. So if they want to learn how to run municipalities, they must go back to people who did things correctly, who were also ANC members.”
Political analyst Ntsikelelo Breakfast said: “... the DA model has weaknesses because when you drive in the [Cape Town] CBD [and] you go to [the] Waterfront [it is well-governed] and in a few kilometres you come across informal settlements like Langa and you see the difference. It is like you are in a different world.”
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