The DA appears poised to take advantage of deep fractures in the ANC that have extended down to regional and provincial level; however, an analyst believes it would be difficult for the party to win the Eastern Cape come South Africa’s sixth democratic general elections in 2019.
The DA appears poised to take advantage of deep fractures in the ANC that have extended down to regional and provincial level; however, an analyst believes it would be difficult for the party to win the Eastern Cape come South Africa’s sixth democratic general elections in 2019.
The comment comes after the DA’s Frontier Constituency introduced Nqaba Bhanga, or “Team Nqaba”, to members of the party’s Makana and Ndlambe caucuses at a meeting in Grahamstown this week, with many – including new Frontier Constituency leader Jane Cowley – endorsing him to replace Athol Trollip as provincial leader.
The gathering came two weeks after the regional Executive Committee of the ANC in Sarah Baartman convened its Regional Lekgotla at Green Fountain Resort in Port Alfred.
The DA’s provincial congress is on 5 and 6 May.
Voting there will elect the DA Eastern Cape’s first new leader in 15 years. Trollip has held the position since 2002.
Talk at this week’s DA gathering in Grahamstown was bold, with Cowley saying, “We are not playing a game: we are trying to win back a democracy. We have to show our voters that we believe in clean governance.”
The DA’s goal is to win the Eastern Cape from the ANC in 2019. They won two Eastern Cape municipalities in last year’s local government elections – Nelson Mandela Bay Metro and Kouga.
Speaking at the meeting at a city venue on Monday, Bhanga, who left Cope for the DA in 2014, taking on the portfolio of Human Settlements in Nelson Mandela Bay late last year, was confident of the party’s ability to take the Eastern Cape.
“We want to make sure, as we took Nelson Mandela Bay, that we take the Eastern Cape,” he said. “It’s for that reason we come as a team. We know how to do it.”
However, he acknowledged that while the DA had politicians, it was lacking in administrative capacity.
“If we don’t prepare people for those important administrative positions, we won’t be able to deliver when we do win,” he said.
Bhanga is the Nelson Mandela Bay’s head of Human Settlements, responsible for finding housing for 80 000 people in the Metro, and has been tackling corruption there since late last year.
“We are currently reviewing the housing list,” he told Grocott’s Mail in an interview after the meeting. “It needs to be fair and transparent.”
Asked what he saw as Makana Municipality’s main challenges, he said appointing the right staff would be key to effective governance.
Strengthening its revenue base – “a municipality can’t only depend on grants, it must have its own revenue stream” – and delivering services on time would be the DA’s other challenges were it to win this municipality.
Describing Rhodes University as a beacon of hope for the people of Makana, he said, however, that the reservoir of knowledge in the institution wasn’t felt in the form of outcomes for the town.
“Corruption is rife and there is poor political leadership in Makana,” he said. “We will stabilise it so that people see the impact on their daily lives.”
Bhanga claimed support for the DA was growing in rural communities.
Lecturer in South African politics at Rhodes University, Wesley Seale, however, says winning the Eastern Cape in 2019 would not be easy for the DA.
“Unlike in the Western Cape, where, if you win Cape Town (66% of the province’s voters live in Cape Town), you win the province. It is a bit more difficult in the Eastern Cape. Rural votes, smaller cities e.g. Makana, Mthatha etc and the other metro, Buffalo City, also play a major determining factor.
“Bhanga will have to prove that he would want to make inroads in these areas before posing a real challenge to the ANC in 2024,” Seale said.
“For this he will need to win more municipalities in 2021 and from which better base can he do this than from NMB where he now has experience in not only “winning” but also “governing” – which the DA is after.”
Grocott’s Mail had asked Seale to comment on the processes currently under way within both the DA and the ANC, and to contextualise local events within the national picture.
The ANC in Sarah Baartman, meanwhile, convened its Regional Lekgotla at Port Alfred on 18 and 19 February, with the purpose of intensifying the work of the ANC in the Region towards the 2019 national and 2021 local government elections.
The Lekgotla was set to be attended by all 25 REC members, PEC members deployed in the region, ANC chief whips, Speakers, Mayors from all seven municipalities within the district, ANC Members of Parliament and the Parliamentary Legislature deployed in the region, Chairpersons and Secretaries from all seven sub regions and regional chairpersons and secretaries of the ANC Youth League and ANC Women’s League.
“Enhancing government work, building the organisation and local economic development” were listed as key focuses of the gathering.
In a statement after the Lekgotla, the party listed improving councillors’ performance by capacitating them to expedite service delivery; encourage municipalities to do proper situational analyses and ensure their organisational structures are able to respond to the challenges faced by municipalities; intensify the co-ordinating role of the district municipality and expedite the relocation of the district municipality from its now DA-controlled Port Elizabeth base to Sundays River Valley.
Commenting on the processes under way in both the DA and the ANC, Seale said it was almost certain that much of the succession debate in the ANC would have swallowed most of the discussions in the Lekgotla.
“They should be receiving and discussing reports from each of the sub-regions (municipalities) dealing with service delivery and governance in each of the municipalities, especially in the light of 2019 and 2021,” Seale said.
“One would expect a direct addressing of the [municipal manager debacle]in Makana for example at the Lekgotla. “But, because of the nature of the ANC, it is almost certain that the majority of the time will be discussing the provincial conference and then the national conference later in the year.
“The ANC counts on its 53 regions nationally to be represented and vote for who succeeds Zuma as the president of the ANC,” Seale said.
“The EC is seen as a Mantashe province (and therefore on the Ramaphosa slate) but it is almost certain that attempts at ‘fracturing’ provinces will take place.
“The ANC court case at the moment in Durban region of the ANC is one such exercise of ‘fracturing’. Up until now, KZN has been viewed as a strong Zuma province yet if the ANC leadership in Durban (and by extension in KZN) loses the court case, KZN would be split down the middle.”
Of the DA’s Frontier Constituency endorsement of Bhanga as the next provincial leader, Seale said for Bhanga it was good to have the backing of the Frontier region, but more importantly the backing of the current leader of the Eastern Cape, Athol Trollip, as he runs for provincial leadership.
“Bhanga came from the ANC, then went to COPE and finally to the DA,” Seale said. “In previous research we noticed that former ANC members who went on to join COPE often went on to join the DA rather than go back to the ANC after the demise of COPE.
“Bhanga personifies this trend. He therefore was able to be make the inroads that he has in NMB and especially in African communities.
“The election of Bongikhosi Madikizela as interim Western Cape leader also confirms the DA’s trajectory of ensuring more African votes and then presenting themselves as an alternative to the ANC,” Seale said.
Skirmishes start
In an early salvo, the ANC’s Kouga municipal caucus has accused the DA of disregarding legislation, and corruption, in processes around the appointment of a municipal manager there.
DA councillors in the DA-led municipality have also been accused by the ANC, in a media statement dated 16 February, of manipulating the housing list to accommodate family and friends.
“The ANC whilst governing Kouga facilitated a smooth process for the allocation of houses in the area hence the contractor on site. We will be following up the matter to expose all forms of corruption related this matter,” the ANC caucus said.
Outrage by the DA in Makana at the alleged flouting of procedure in the appointment of ward committee members in this municipality – an item that came up in a recent Council meeting – is matched by allegations in the 16 February statement that a ward councillor in Kouga irregularly appointed his own ward committee, hand-picking DA members in disregard of Council policy.
In its statement, the ANC says, “The ANC wishes to state one thing categorically clear without fear or favour that it will take on DA deliberate disregard of legislation in favour of corruption for party politics.”
On Tuesday, DA Makana Caucus Leader Mlindi Nhanha issued a statement demanding the reinstatement of Nosimo Balindlela’s photograph in the Makana Council Chamber.
“The DA has noted with utter dismay the removal of Mrs Nosimo Balindlela’s photograph from the display inside the council chamber,” Nhanha said in the statement.
“Presently, on the walls of the council chamber are photographs of all post 1994 Presidents, Eastern Cape Premiers (except that of Mrs Balindlela) and Makana mayors including individuals in [Zamuxolo] Peter whom we should be embarrassed to be associated with.
“Under Peter’s watch and stewardship our municipality was bankrupted and none of those implicated were ever called to account. Instead they were rewarded with promotions either to Bhisho or the Sarah Baartman District Municipality,” Nhanha said.
“It is childish of the ANC to try and wipe away the well documented legacy of Mrs Balindlela in the struggle against apartheid and her sterling contribution in building a society in which freedom, fairness and opportunity as envisaged by Nelson Mandela is a reality… the DA demands an immediate re-instatement of Mrs Balindlela’s official photograph and we’ll be submitting a motion of question for the mayor to account. And an apology be sent to Mrs. Balindlela for this unfortunate situation.”
Nhanha said councillors had first noticed that the photograph had been removed two years ago.
"Gone are the days that the ANC does as it pleases," Nhanha said.
