Supra Mahumapelo’s shameless attempt at Local Government Capture

6 May 2016

North West Premier and ANC Chairperson, Supra Mahumapelo has issued a directive to the 23 municipalities in his province to pass council resolutions agreeing to a new shared service structure. This would allow the Premier to have unlimited access to, amongst other things, billions in municipalities’ infrastructure grants which will broaden the scope for corruption and the misappropriation of public funds.

I will therefore be writing to the Minister of Finance Pravin Gordhan to request him to investigate the legality of Supra’s directive. 

As at 31 December 2015, municipalities had spent R159,399,544,000 in the 2015/16 financial year. This is a massive amount of money that has been directed to the running of municipalities and ensuring that citizens, especially poor ones, have access to services such as healthcare, education, water and infrastructure development, among other things. 

Local government has access to and control over substantial amounts of money. Supra’s directive is nothing but an attempt at “capturing” local government in the North West Province. His move will give him access to further abuse public funds to the detriment of citizens of the North West. 

A statement from the Office of the Premier to the Mail & Guardian was that “It must be borne in mind that the Office of the Premier has a responsibility to monitor, evaluate and to intervene to ensure clean governance.” Governance under Mahumapelo has had no proximity to cleanliness and this action certainly does not fall within the Constitutional ambit of provincial authority.

Added to this, the directive conflates local and provincial government with a complete disregard for the separation of government spheres. Supra’s move clearly shows he has no regard for the delivery of basic services to the people of the North West, and is more concerned with having a fiscal hold over resources in the province. 

The DA will ensure that the constitution is upheld, and that South Africans are not robbed of their livelihoods by corrupt ANC officials who will stop at nothing to ensure that they clutch onto any power at the upcoming Local Government Elections in August. 

Issued by Kevin Mileham, DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, 6 May 2016