If it works - break it
The ANC cannot leave well alone. Midvaal is the latest example. The Municipal Demarcation Board has decided to do away with this DA run municipality, do away with Sedibeng District Municipality and combine it with Emfuleni in a new metro council.
Midvaal used to be called Meyerton. It and Emfuleni are not large; Emfuleni does not have a big population and Midvaal's is even smaller. Together they are about as metropolitan as my aunt Fanny is an opera star. From the viewpoint of the ANC, one never asks the question: is it likely that the residents of Midvaal will be better off or worse off under this new metro? The only question that is relevant is the following: how can we do away with this DA council and extend ANC power?
You see, Midvaal's problem is that it is run by the DA. It is one of the best run councils in South Africa. Its finances are in order; its streets are clean; services operate. No one would say that Midvaal is perfect - human institutions can never be that - but it is the envy of ratepayers in Johannesburg and in Emfuleni. We look with longing eyes at a town that works.
The ANC, while triumphant about the change, uses as a fig-leaf the argument that it is not the ANC but the Demarcation Board that has made the decision which will take effect from the next municipal election in 2016. Those of us who are old enough will remember that in the old days, with every delimitation of parliamentary constituencies and of city council wards, the amazing result was that the changes always seemed to favour the National Party. The decision by the Municipal Demarcation Board will surely have the same effect.
Who appointed the Demarcation Board? The ANC. Who serves on the board? People with an ANC world view. The chairman of the board, Landiwe Mahlangu, in defence, said they had taken all the ten thousand objections into consideration. "We have never, certainly in this particular case, considered any political factors...we have never had pressure." He would say that, wouldn't he? In any event, no pressure was necessary: the ANC made it plain in public statements exactly what it wanted. ANC hegemony demands total control of everything that lives and breathes.
The DA mayor of Midvaal, Bongani Baloyi has announced a possible court challenge to the decision. One wishes him good luck- certainly his residents will do so. The board has a wide discretion and it is not easy to prove that it failed to comply with the provisions of the law.
But whether there was a technical compliance or not, there is one glaring question and that never seems to occur to some politicians: is the public entitled to quality government at municipal level, with honest councillors and hard-working officials administering the town to the best of their ability within reasonable budget limits? The answer must be "Yes." The next question is obvious: will this metro improve local government or will it destroy something that works and cost a fortune to run? You guess the answer.
Douglas Gibson is former Opposition Chief Whip and former ambassador to Thailand. He can be followed on Twitter @dhmgibson
This article first appeared in The Citizen.
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