Six provinces: Ramaphosa wants to restrict communities’ power

12 February 2019

President Cyril Ramaphosa's plan to reduce South Africa's nine provinces to six will not necessarily bring about a decrease in state expenditure; instead, it creates the impression that the government wants to centralise all power and decision making.

The FF Plus welcomes any steps to cut back on state expenditure. But reducing South Africa's number of provinces will not necessarily reduce state expenditure.  It seems as if the ANC is planning to take away the power of South Africans on local level and establish a national model in which there is greater separation between the government and the people.

The FF Plus, however, is committed to the devolution of power to local level. Decision making must reside and resources must be utilised on provincial and municipal level to the benefit of citizens and should not be lost in a national pool where poorly performing municipalities and provinces are funded by those that do perform well.

Municipalities and provinces are supposed to function independently as entities of the state and they must be much less dependent on national resources. Communities must get to decide how they want to be governed.

President Ramaphosa's motive for reducing the number of provinces is also suspicious. The ANC could be using it as a smokescreen for Gerrymandering in an attempt to retain some support, particularly in provinces like Gauteng, the Western Cape and the Northern Cape where the party has lost a lot of support.

Expropriation without compensation and the planned nationalisation of the Reserve Bank clearly point to the ANC's determination to nationalise, which will place all the country's resources in the hands of corrupt ANC politicians and officials.

The fact that municipalities and provinces are suffering under the leadership of the ANC proves that the ANC cannot even govern on local level. South Africa's problems do not lie with the number of provinces, but with the ANC's looting of the country on every single level of government.

The ANC's obsession with a centralised government can, however, be thwarted by a multiparty government of which the FF Plus will be part to the benefit of everyone in South Africa.

Issued by Anton Alberts, FF Plus chairperson, 12 February 2019