There was optimism in the air, and justifiably so, in December when the electorate in the troubled North West municipality of Ditsobotla was asked to queue again for a retake of the election of their local government.
Governance in the municipality has been shambolic to the extent that service delivery is virtually non-existent.
Investors have fled, and thousands of residents have lost their jobs. Dairy produce giant Clover, for example, closed shop and sought greener pastures elsewhere. Municipal revenue was affected.
The local government elections did not change anything. Ditsobotla simply continued after the chaos was paused for elections.
The council was placed under administration, and eventually elections were held on December 14. The voters did not return an outright majority winner from any of the contesting political parties, but the ANC got 39% of the vote.
The parties had to cut deals to form a coalition government, and the ANC found partners in the Patriotic Alliance (PA), Forum for Service Delivery (FSD) and the African Hearth Congress. The PA was handed the mayoral chain while the ANC got itself the post of speaker of council and FSD got the chief whip post.
It seemingly was all systems go but news broke yesterday that the mayor had resigned citing underhand ANC tactics to secure the post of municipal manager.
The ANC has disputed this and insists no motion was placed in council to appoint the municipal manager.
It said the speaker had simply read out a letter from the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs noting its appointment of an interim administrator.
The short history of coalitions in this land has unfortunately been such that the nature of deals cut to form such partnerships has been secretive, often with political games played to the detriment of governance and service delivery.
We hope the parties in this instance place the needs of the people first and provide the services and stability Distobotla needs to recover.
Is that too much to ask for?
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.