The Midvaal amalgamation: at the centre of vested interests

As if the crazy logic of the Municipal Democratic Board (MDB) in amalgamating Midvaal and Emfuleni wasn’t good enough, clear conflict of interests have come to light. This conflict of interest is as clear as daylight; MDB Chairperson, Landiwe Mahlangu, is a non-executive member of a company called Sea Kay Holdings. This is a company that provides construction services, which includes low-cost housing to government. Guess What? As far back as 2008, the Department of Housing in Gauteng appointed Sea Kay Holdings to build 1500 houses in Emfuleni. This contract alone cost R58,2 million. But this is not the end of it! Landiwe Mahlangu is also a non-executive member of Interwaste, a waste management company. So to all to see, in a public document, in the Emfuleni Annual Report of 2012/2013; Interwaste operates the Waldrift landfill site in Emfuleni. If this isn’t a conflict of interest on behalf of the MBD Chairperson and the decision making process when it came to Midvaal, then I don’t know what is. Mahlangu clearly has vested and business interests in Emfuleni. The process in the merging of the municipalities of Midvaal and Emfuleni is obviously called to question. The community is overwhelmingly against this decision. Secondly, the records of these two municipalities each speak for themselves. The ANC’S unbelievable statement that the merger will bring a “fresh start for the people” of Midvaal and development and prosperity in the area. Only in cloud koo-koo land and in South Africa can a party with such a unambiguous history of bad government in the area claim that this decision will benefit Midvaal. The Auditor General (AG) has given Emfuleni disclaimers, adverse opinions and qualified audits in the last 11 years while Midvaal has constantly received unqualified audits. Unqualified audits are the best audit a municipality can receive. In 2006 Emfuleni was identified as a municipality that needed to be “rescued” by the National Government and was placed under “Project Consolidate” under the guardianship of the Department of Provincial and Local Government. The conclusion was reached after the AG confirmed in 2004 that municipal officials had colluded with other parties to sell off council assets at rock bottom prices. According to the report, one official scrapped a R10 million debt in rates on the properties in question. This however was not the beginning of illegal practices in Emfuleni. In late 2001 the municipality was owed R867 million by its debtors, by early 2003 the figure had increased to more than R1 billion. By October 2005, Emfuleni was owed R1,7 billion by its debtors. Only a year later with an outstanding debt of R2 billion, it had the worst culture of non-payment of all municipalities in the country, with a debtor collection period of 489 days. Emfuleni had systematically raised a debt completely out of control. Of course all this translated, and continues to translate, to less delivery. Let’s compare Midvaal, what a contrast! Midvaal has a 100% rates collection rate, the only local government to do so in Gauteng. As a result the poor benefits from this the most with Midvaal offering one of the highest indigent programmes in South Africa, at R3200. The facts are as clear as crystal. The ANC argues that they want the new metro to benefit from the good governance of Midvaal. Of course this is nonsense as experience tells us that this will not happen. Before the 2011 local government elections Winnie Madikizela-Mandela said that; “The ANC has never been defeated by anybody. This area, this municipality, belongs to the ANC.” Again, the ANC’s attitude is clearly displayed; it believes that it should govern by right, by hook or by crook, and not because it has been voted in to do so. Day by day more and more information is coming to light of just how ludicrous this merger decision was. The DA will continue to do what it legally can do to prevent this.