What we found and how we are turning things around
Note to Editors: this is a special edition of SA Today to note the 1st anniversary of the 2011 local government elections
Yesterday, the 18th of May, marked the first anniversary of last year's local government election - the Democratic Alliance's most successful election ever. We now govern in 27 local councils, in four provinces, and enjoy 24 % of the national vote. In this special edition of SA Today, to mark the anniversary, it is appropriate for us to report back on some of the DA's achievements in government in the "new DA municipalities" (those we won from the ANC a year ago).
The DA won 13 new councils last year, either alone or in coalition - Bitou, Breede Valley, Drakenstein, George, Hantam, Hessequa, Karoo Hoogland, Knysna, Laingsburg, Langeberg, Nama Khoi, Saldanha Bay, Witzenberg.
In most of our new councils it took some months for the full extent of the damage to become apparent. The outgoing administrations were, as a rule, anything but co-operative. Issues included missing documents , break-ins, harassment and theft, as well as damaged, broken or stolen equipment . In many cases, these actions were not simply vindictive, but seemingly designed to destroy records, including evidence of corruption.
In the words of one of our new Mayors, Gesie van Deventer of Drakenstein municipality (Paarl and Wellington), many of these had become "shell municipalities" under the ANC. They "looked normal from the outside but had no substance" when the inner workings were examined. Moreover, many of the new councils "had been experts in what can only be called ‘creative accounting' to hide financial decline".