Africa-Press – South-Africa. ANC national chairperson Gwede Mantashe has criticised party councillors, saying they are good at singing but have no capacity to manage municipalities.
ANC councillors from across the country gathered at the GoldRush Dome at the FNB Stadium in Johannesburg on Monday for a “Roll Call” aimed at advancing service delivery in ANC-led municipalities.
“I know that we have a lot of singing councillors, but we have no councils. We all sing well, but capacity dololo,” Mantashe said.
“That is the council we have. Comrades who are councillors, leaders of the ANC who make noise when a meeting is under way. What kind of leadership is that?”
Most ANC-led municipalities face significant challenges, including poor service delivery, corruption and incompetence. Some councillors have been accused of using their positions for personal gain, diverting funds meant for essential services to enrich those connected to them.
President Cyril Ramaphosa urged councillors to improve delivery, saying they should approach it as “service delivery or death”.
“Things like water supply and leaks must be fixed. It’s unacceptable that as councillors and leaders of the people in the areas we live in, we can have water leaks and sewage running in the street and not take action. We must be the first to know and you must do something about it within 48 hours.”
He said ANC councillors should be open to learning from other municipalities not led by the party to see what they are doing differently and incorporate it into their respective municipalities.
“Municipalities must act decisively to improve audit outcomes. It cannot be acceptable that we control a number of municipalities; it is hugely painful when the auditor-general comes to report to the cabinet and presents their report, and those municipalities that perform best are not ANC-controlled municipalities.
“I can name them here; there’s nothing wrong with competition. They are often DA-controlled municipalities. We need to ask ourselves what it is they are doing that is better than what we are doing. There’s nothing wrong with us saying we want to see what Cape Town and Stellenbosch are doing. We need to move up the ladder. We cannot forever stay at the bottom. It hurts me deeply when I continue to see that our municipalities tend to move backward, and you are the people who can improve that.”
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