It is difficult to perceive a sentiment of sincerity in local government MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube’s lambasting of her comrades for their part in the municipal meltdown of Pietermaritzburg (The Witness, April 10).
After all, the governance shambles in the capital city is precisely the result of ANC policies which prioritise cadre deployment and demographic representivity in place of competence. For months the mismanagement of Pietermaritzburg has been obvious, yet Dube-Ncube and her ilk denied the situation. Given her position as the overseer of local government and as a former Speaker of the eThekwini council, the question that should be asked is why she took so long to intervene.
Pietermaritzburg’s plight is reflective of the state of the majority of municipalities in South Africa, all of which have been hobbled by ANC misrule. Placing Pietermaritzburg under administration may serve to rehabilitate the city but it will not cure it of the flaw in its governance. The fact that it is the second time in less than ten years that it has been placed under administration is proof of that.
Unless cadre deployment, B-BBEE and demographic representivity are abolished and merit is made the sole criterion of employment, shoddy governance and corruption will return to afflict municipalities like Pietermaritzburg.
Sent into The Witness and The Mercury and published, 16 April 2019.
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