ANC conflates party and state in desperate attempt to cling to power in Mangaung

11th August 2022

ANC conflates party and state in desperate attempt to cling to power in Mangaung

The DA in Mangaung demands a retraction of the instruction from the ANC’s Interim Regional Committee (IRC) that all council sittings should be immediately suspended. (View here.)

This is an attempt to cling to power, even though they punished eight councillors who voted with their conscience and are now set to lose the majority vote in Council.

The ANC yet again conflates party and state – to the point where the ANC thinks they can integrate the two with the IRC instructing and Council Chief Whip, Cllr Vumile Mikelo, acting on this party instruction. (View here.)

The audacity of the IRC and Mikelo to ascribe authority to themselves to impede on the autonomy of Mangaung Council and Administration, by interfering and preventing Council from exercising its constitutionally mandated duties of oversight, legislative functions and executive functions, is a gross violation of the separation of party and state.

It is astonishing to see how far removed the ANC is from reality and that they view themselves above the Constitution and Rule of Law. Not only will their baseless instruction prevent Council from fulfilling their duties but also hamper the delivery of basic services to residents in Mangaung.

What makes this instruction even worse is the fact that the ANC is of the opinion that they have jurisdiction over 50 councillors from opposition parties. Yet, the Municipal Structures Act clearly states that if the Speaker of a municipal council is absent or not available to perform the functions of Speaker, or during a vacancy, the council must elect another councillor to act as Speaker.

The ANC would rather try to deprive residents of Mangaung of a functioning Council, than risk – being eight councillors down – that a Speaker from the DA is elected.

Their instruction will lead to urgent matters being left in the wind such as the approval of a new land use scheme, filling of MPT vacancies and the appointment of an authorised official to process basic unopposed land use applications to get the Municipal Planning Tribunal and land use applications up and running again.

The DA will not stand by and watch how the ANC destroys our Democracy. If this instruction is not retracted we will ask our colleagues in Parliament to put questions forward to the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana.

Only the DA can get rid of the ANC rot and internal faction fights and deliver quality basic services as evident in municipalities where we govern.

 

Issued by Cllr Johan Pretorius - DA Mangaung Caucus Leader