The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Northern Cape has taken note of the desperate attempt by the ANC to save face in the province’s two biggest municipalities ahead of the looming 2026 local government elections.
This follows yesterday’s announcement of a reshuffle in Sol Plaatje municipality that sees Mayor Kagisho Sonyoni, set to be replaced by former MEC Martha Bartlett, and the speaker to be replaced by former premier and minister, Dipuo Peters. Similarly drastic changes have been announced for Dawid Kruiper municipality.
During his inauguration in 2019, Premier Zamani Saul promised that Sol Plaatje would not deteriorate further under his watch. The province’s capital city, however, was recently downgraded to a level four municipality. This, while it lost about R80 million in unspent grant money and now faces the risk of severe consequence management for failing to adhere to Eskom’s strict debt relief programme. Its sanitation infrastructure has collapsed, with water challenges also being the order of the day.
The situation in Dawid Kruiper, which currently faces water restrictions due to infrastructure mismanagement, is not much better. Proclamations by President Cyril Ramaphosa authorised the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) to investigate allegations of maladministration and mismanagement of public funds in both Sol Plaatje and Dawid Kruiper. Hawks investigations are also ongoing in both institutions.
Over the past two years, I spoke to political parties about working together to try and save Sol Plaatje from collapsing but they didn’t want to listen. The DA has also made repeated suggestions about addressing service delivery issues in Dawid Kruiper, but instead the opposition was sidelined.
After being tone deaf to the daily challenges faced by residents for so long, the ANC is now bringing in more seasoned cadres to try and restore their failed track record in local government. As far as the DA is concerned, they are clutching at straws and are likely to sow more instability, as they try to put out fires in only two of the province’s many failed municipalities.