ANC doesn’t get it, you don’t fix broken municipalities with more cadre deployment

2 February 2023

The DA will keep a close eye on the members of the ANC national executive committee who the party has now decided to 'deploy' to dysfunctional municipalities. The state does not belong to the ANC, and their leaders must respect the separation between party and state.

If members of party's discredited National Executive Committee will be deployed ‘…to 42 struggling municipalities across the country to keep check of its members who have failed to govern local councils', will they be interfering in municipal council decisions, appointments in the administration, and tender awards?

If the ANC and national government is serious about fixing the dysfunctional municipalities under ANC control they should concede to the DA’s High Court case against cadre deployment, not oppose it.

The primary cause of governance failure in ANC-run municipalities is the deployment of connected cadres to political and senior administrative positions, often with no qualifications to do the job. This has not only politicised the administrative function in municipalities but it has also resulted in undue interference with procurements processes to benefit ANC networks, wasteful spending, financial ruin and collapse in service delivery.

In contrast, DA run municipalities are among the best run in the country because of, among other factors, prioritising meritorious appointment of senior managers, transparent procurement processes and a laser focus on high service delivery spending when measured per resident on an annual basis.

Given the ANC's track record we simply don't believe that this will be the work which deployed NEC members will seek to do in municipalities already destroyed by the party's corruption and mismanagement.

Statement issued by Cilliers Brink MP - DA Shadow Minister of Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), 2 February 2023