African National Congress (ANC) provincial chairperson, Zamani Saul says corruption is crippling governance in the Northern Cape.
He was speaking during the closing of the party’s local government summit at De Aar in the province.
Saul says the party needs to become honest about corruption.
“In the provincial government there is corruption there, that is a fact and the people of South Africa especially here in the Northern Cape have become sensitive around issues of corruption. As the ANC, cadres of the movement and deployees of the ANC we should lead the charge against corruption. It shouldn’t be an issue of the opposition parties.”
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Saul has also issued a warning, saying his party is in danger of losing the province to the Democratic Alliance (DA), if it does not improve governance in municipalities.
The Northern Cape ANC is on the path of introspection. Identifying what needs to be changed for it to recover the lost electoral support.
The party is currently governing with electoral support of 57 % – the lowest since 1994.
“Our character as the governing party is at a tipping point. Any wrong move and we are likely to lose this province. If we don’t address that, the DA Western Cape model of taking over will come to the Northern Cape. That is where we are heading to. There’s a DA model of takeover which is knocking, you can hear the drumbeats.”
Irregular expenditure in the province’s municipalities has increased to R624-million.
Self-serving and incompetent mayors were lambasted by the ANC chairperson, reminding them to serve their communities.
“You get into the municipality, you meet the mayor who is the political leader of the municipality this guy is just a complete joke. He does not know where he wants to take the municipality to, he does not care to share the vision, he does not care about any form of control over the affairs of the municipality.”
Out of the 31 municipalities, only one received a clean audit. The Sol Plaatje municipality – which runs the capital of the province, Kimberley, was singled out as one of the municipalities that needs to improve.
Sol Plaatje municipality mayor, Patrick Mabilo says something has to be done to improve service delivery in the municipality.
“The premier has just given us the marching order. We have no alternative but to accelerate service delivery and the summit will assist us to look at our internal challenges and come with a comprehensive program to address them,” says Mabilo.
Saul says this lekgotla should not be just a talk shop, but a starting point for implementing changes for better governance.
