Date: 26/05/2011
Source: The United Democratic Movement
Title: UDM: Holomisa: Address by the UDM president, to the King Sabata Dalinyebo Municipal councillors, Mthatha

Eastern Cape Provincial Leadership, KSD Regional Leadership, UDM KSD Municipal Councillors, UDM members, Ladies and Gentlemen.

The 2011 Municipal Elections have come and gone. I am sure you will all concur with me when I say the 2011 Municipal Elections were the toughest and most hotly contested ones in the history of Local Government Elections in South Africa.

First and foremost, I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who voted for the United Democratic Movement (UDM) in the past municipal elections. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) results clearly demonstrate that the UDM exists in all corners of our Country.

The fact that we have seats in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and the Western Cape gives us a solid base on which to build for the 2014 National Elections.

I would also like to congratulate all the UDM Councillors across the Country for the vote of confidence they received from the people of South Africa.

I commend you for your hard work and dedication over the past three months.

We did well considering that the South African political playing field is not level. We should be proud of our achievement given the fact that we are competing with governing parties that tap into State resources to fund their election campaigns.

Listening to the so called political analysts over the past few weeks, one could not help but be struck by how mono-dimensional, in favour of the ruling, their analysis was. It was easy for one to see that the SABC's analysts were carefully chosen by masters from the Palace.

Not even a single one of them mentioned the ruling party’s access to unlimited resources through the Eskom/Hitachi/Chancellor House deal, where we, the general public, contribute to the ANC coffers every time we buy electricity. This means we, the general public, funded the ANC’s campaign.

It is such institutionalised corruption, where the ruling party deploys its cadres in State institution with scant regard for their suitability for positions, which cripples service delivery in all levels of Government. In fact, this institutionalised corruption has cascaded down to Chapter 9 Institutions such as the IEC that seek to serve and protect the interests of the ruling party. In such a situation, how could one expect these Institutions to be amenable to the complaints and concerns of other political parties?

No so long ago, we lodged a complaint to the IEC about our dissatisfaction with how the counting process was conducted in King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) Municipality in the Eastern Cape. The IEC has acknowledged receipt of our complaint. We hope they will come back to us as soon as possible.

Other examples of collision between the ruling party and State Institutions can be seen in how the Demarcation Board functions. In South Africa, demarcation is done secretly by the Demarcation Board, the ruling party and IEC with no public participation. It is a system engineered to ensure electoral victory for the ruling party in various wards and municipalities across the Country at every electoral cycle.

I am convinced that had the UDM not complained publicly and vociferously about the need to give all political parties live TV coverage for their 2011 Municipal Elections manifesto launches, none of the political parties, other than the ruling party, would have received live coverage.

However, as always, the gains were only temporary. As is the norm, from now on up until 2014, we are only going the see the ruling party on our TV screens.

Despite all these obstacles, we managed to pull a good performance.

Tomorrow you are going to be sworn in as Councillors. My advice to you is that you spend the rest of the day today thinking carefully about who is going to lead you in delivering services to our people.

The door to door campaigns we conducted during the election period should have adequately equipped you with the necessary strategic responses you need for the service delivery challenges facing our people. Whatever you do, you must avoid politicising service delivery issues. Be nonpartisan. Serve everyone equally and to the best of your ability.

As you begin your journey as a Councillor, first try to establish what programmes have been planned for your communities. You also need to establish how much money has been allocated for the needs of your communities in an effort to assess if it would be sufficient for its needs.

You must avoid getting entangled and involved in the ruling party’s infighting because it is counterproductive and is not about to end anytime soon.

It is precisely because of this infighting that it has lost support in 8 out of 9 Provinces.

Tired of this infighting, the electorate showed that it is spoiled for choice by voting for opposition parties in many municipalities across the Country. For example, who thought that Duncan Village with its solid struggle credentials would turn its back on the ruling party and vote for an opposition party? The same happened in the former ruling party’s stronghold, Port Elizabeth. The message from the electorate is clear: IF YOU DO NOT DELIVER, WE WILL VOTE YOU OUT!

For many years, we have been calling for the Government to attend to the sorry state of the Country’s neglected areas such as Mthatha. I challenge the Zuma Cabinet to travel on the impassable roads in Mthatha and many other neglected areas across the Country to experience firsthand what our people go through on a daily basis.

Electricity provision is even an acute problem in many of these communities. Many villages are still waiting for electricity since 1994.

While talking about electricity, when Eskom was responsible for electrifying houses, it used to connect about 300 000 houses to electricity per annum. The ruling party took that function over from Eskom trying to score cheap political points but now it can barely electrify 1000 000 houses per annum.

In short, the public will be watching every move you make over the next five years. You need to double your service delivery performance efforts over the next five years to convince the people of South Africa that right is in indeed on our side.

You also need to ensure that you advance for the introduction of an Independent Tender Board in your municipality that will oversee the awarding of tenders.

Until Civil Society and political parties fight for the levelling of the political playing field, improved service delivery will remain a distant dream since access to resources instead of a person’s ability serve will continue to determine who governs which areas of our Country.

Once again, well done to you all.

I wish you all the best!

I thank you.