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South Africans head to the polls in 2011 to elect new representatives in local government. In the run-up to these elections, it is imperative that South Africans are presented with crucial details about the records of different parties in government, and for this reason the DA today presents a discussion document detailing the case study of Nokeng Tsa Taemane, a municipality in Gauteng that is currently run by the ANC.

A copy of that discussion document is available online.

Nokeng Tsa Taemane is a local municipality located in the Metsweding District Municipality, on Gauteng's northern-most border with Limpopo province. As a case study it is illustrative, indeed compelling, because, unlike most other municipalities in South Africa, it provides the electorate an opportunity to assess the relative performances of ANC and DA administrations, over a period of just a few years, and in almost identical economic circumstances. That is because, although the area of Nokeng has traditionally been dominated by the ANC, the DA was presented with the opportunity to govern the municipality for a period of five years, between 2001 and 2006.

Presently, four years into the present ANC-controlled administration, the council of Nokeng Tsa Taemane is facing the prospect of dissolution. The provincial MEC presented a letter to the council's political leaders two weeks ago which ordered the bankrupt council be placed under administration. Despite that, the order is yet to be confirmed and there is speculation that internal ANC politics have delayed the move.

Under the DA, however, Nokeng saw real change:

• When the DA took over, Eskom was about to cut off the electricity to the municipality as the council had reneged on a carefully worked out rescue plan. The council owed Eskom R5.5 million which had escalated to R11m because of unpaid interest, but the DA immediately set up a new debt schedule with Eskom, and by 2006, the debt had been reduced by R9m, to just R2m. Most importantly, the lights hadn't been switched off.
• The DA administration built 1,970 RDP houses between 2003 and 2006, using provincial grants.
• When the DA took over the town the physical infrastructure of government was extremely poor. There was little furniture in the municipal offices, which were too small; there were no computers and there were no administrative systems. There was no town engineer and the municipal manager was the brother-in-law of the then mayor. The new DA team went to work building the systems and physical infrastructure necessary for a workable administration. The new mayor furnished his office with furniture of his own that he brought from his home. DA officials refurbished the neglected Rayton town hall.
• Infrastructure and upgrading projects bloomed during the DA administration. A new sewerage works was built; the Refilwe township hall was refurbished, water and electrical systems were overhauled and expanded. This was also a time of massive private investment in the municipality. Estimates put the amount of investment in Nokeng during the DA's period of governance at around ten times the present rate.
• In terms of luxuries and perks, the incoming DA administration sold the previous mayor's car, a Mercedes, and put the funds back into the pool for service delivery and infrastructure. To save money, the DA mayor drove his own Nissan 1400.
• During the DA administration the mayor's entertainment budget was in the order of R50 000 a year. Much of that was used to pay for pauper's funerals.

Subsequently, under the ANC:

• Nokeng Tsa Taemane was placed under financial administration on 3 August 2009. Despite a financial turnaround strategy worked out by Deloitte the council's position in untenable. Even if there is a 100% monthly collection of rates, council salaries alone, under the new ANC regime, amount to 112% of the monthly rates income. During one recent month, rates accounts were not sent out because the council did not have R12 000 for stamps to post them.
• Indications are that the situation with regard to electricity payments to Eskom is once again dire. Cuts have not been made to the general supply but apparently the sewerage pumping station has been cut on two occasions, stopping the functioning of the sewerage works and forcing the town to make overdue payments to Eskom.
• The rate of housing delivery has decreased by 97 percent.
• The current administration has a mayoral entertainment budget of between R400 000 and R500 000 per year.
• Spending on luxuries and perks is the hallmark of the current administration. When the ANC took power in 2006 it purchased two cars, a black 240E Mercedes (with a blue light) and a dark green Audi A4, which was purchased illegally for the speaker. The mayoral Mercedes had been crashed and written off by the end of 2006, in a single vehicle accident. When the Gauteng provincial government gave a third financial lifeline of R5m to the town early this year, the administration promptly bought a new Audi for the mayor's use. The mayor is driven everywhere by a uniformed and armed Nokeng traffic officer.
• Whereas the ANC administration prior to the DA taking the council in 2001 had been content to let the municipality's infrastructure simply decay, the new ANC mayor in 2006 decided to take things to the opposite extreme, taking over the large office of the municipal manager for herself and refurbishing it at a cost of R135 000.
• The new ANC mayor has a string of wasteful expenditure scandals against her name, which include a business class flight to a conference and overnight stays in a top hotel in Pretoria, just 30km from the town. Much of this has been declared wasteful and fruitless expenditure the by Auditor General and by a team of auditors appointed by the MEC for Local Government which conducted a forensic investigation into the financial affairs of the municipality.

Conclusion

The DA administration in Nokeng was characterised by frugality and a can-do focus on actual municipal governance, service delivery and development. By contrast, Nokeng is now in a state of crisis. Though facing administration, and the subject of large-scale wasteful and fruitless expenditure, the ANC's maladministration of Nokeng is not the worst in the country. There are also examples of municipalities that the ANC has run quite considerably better than Nokeng. What Nokeng does show, however, is an example of the powerful effect that the election of a DA administration can have in shifting scarce municipal resources to where they need to be going - to service delivery, and the provision of new infrastructure. The DA's Open Opportunity Society for All was starting to take shape in the five years that the DA controlled the municipality, because the municipality was starting to use its resources efficiently to provide people with the opportunities they need to make of their lives what they wish. There was a long way to go. There is a longer way still, after half a decade of mismanagement under our successors. But the municipality provides a compelling case study in the difference between life under the ANC, and life under the DA.