Makhanda -
The High Court last month granted a civil rights group’s application to have the southeastern municipality’s council dissolved because it had failed to provide adequate services and properly manage its operations. Judge Igna Stretch ordered the provincial government to appoint an administrator to run the district until fresh elections are held.
The unprecedented 117-page decision sent shock waves through the ANC, which controls scores of other towns hobbled by corruption and mismanagement. While the judgment is being appealed, the genie is out of the bottle. Community groups in the Enoch Mgijima municipality north of Makana have filed their own lawsuit to disband the council and others may follow suit.
“Democracy has been served,” Ayanda Kota, chairman of the Unemployed People’s Movement, which filed the Makana suit, said in an interview. “The ruling means people have the power to go to court and throw corrupt politicians out of office and elect competent ones.” A succession of government reports has shown the mounting risk the 257 municipalities pose to the nation’s finances. Just 18 got clean audits in the year through June 2018, according to the Auditor-General. Local authorities are collectively owed almost R170 billion for rates and services, and their inability to collect it from residents who are unable or unwilling to pay means they struggle to settle their own bills.