‘But let us be clear: Radebe was not removed for service delivery failures. He was removed for losing a ward to the DA,’ Mthembu said.
The ANC has been accused of removing its mayor in Emfuleni Local Municipality because the DA won its first fully black ward in the municipality in a recent by-election.
Last week, the DA won Ward 28 in Evaton in a neck-and-neck contest with the ANC – an indication of changing voting patterns in what has been known as an ANC stronghold. Shortly after this victory, the municipality and the ANC announced that the mayor, Sipho Radebe, had resigned because of service delivery failures.
“We know the ANC only acted against Radebe after losing Ward 28 to the DA last week. The DA victory in Ward 28 is an indication that residents are tired of empty promises and have lost confidence in the ANC government in Emfuleni,” said Duncan Mthembu, the DA’s caucus leader in Emfuleni.
Radebe’s performance
Mthembu said the DA in Emfuleni has been outspoken about Radebe’s poor performance as mayor and the poor state of the municipality under his leadership.
“It is no surprise to hear the ANC saying the mayor resigned because of service delivery failures. The DA has, however, been raising the same concerns for years. In 2023, we brought a motion of no confidence (MoNC) against mayor Radebe because of poor political leadership and the ongoing collapse of basic services. At the time, the ANC defended him and said he was the right person for the job.
“But let us be clear: Radebe was not removed for service delivery failures. He was removed for losing a ward to the DA. Power matters more to the ANC than people do,” said Mthembu.
Mthembu said the DA also wants the councillors who shielded Radebe from various motions of no confidence removed.
“The ANC will not fix Emfuleni, especially if he is simply replaced by another ANC councillor. None of the ANC councillors has shown that they are able to turn the municipality around. Quite the contrary, they went out of their way to protect an abject failure of a mayor.”
Mbalula blames coalition politics for Emfuleni’s problems
Meanwhile, ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told eNCA over the weekend that it is not his party’s fault that service delivery in Emfuleni has collapsed.
“The municipality fell into the hands of a coalition, and the ANC is not [in] outright governance there,” said Mbalula.
But he said the ANC has introduced an action plan as part of its efforts to revive struggling municipalities around the country.
“We have always taken responsibility and accountability, and we have acted… part of the actions we take to fix local government will, among others, mobilising government to put those municipalities under administration so that we are able to fast track the question of service delivery,” he said.
According to Mbalula, some of the people the ANC has deployed to public office have misrepresented the party by failing to carry out their duties.
“They have compromised our trust among the people, and yes, in certain instances we should have acted quite quicker; we did not, but now, since the action plan, we are acting,” he said.