What are we talking about? Cosatu criticises Ramaphosa's praise for DA-run municipalities

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), an alliance partner of the African National Congress (ANC), has described President Cyril Ramaphosa’s remarks praising Democratic Alliance (DA)-governed municipalities in the Western Cape as “unfortunate.”

IOL has reported that Ramaphosa recently highlighted that some of the country’s best-run municipalities were under DA control, which has sparked discontent within the ANC’s tripartite alliance.

Cosatu leaders say such remarks undermine the ANC and its allies, particularly at a time when service delivery challenges and coalition tensions dominate the political landscape.

“The choice of Cape Town and Stellenbosch is quite unfortunate. In Cape Town, when you land and drive to the city, there’s the N2 there, and you see on your left-hand side what is happening. So what are we talking about when we talk about Cape Town being run by DA better? It’s only when you get to the city,” Cosatu’s first deputy president Mike Shingange told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika.

“It means that the DA, unlike the ANC, is servicing the minority population of this country. It means for the DA, its task is maintaining the status quo of the clean Cape Town that has long been developed. The DA’s mandate is not to improve and develop Khayelitsha and all the municipalities surrounding the City of Cape Town. It’s unfair to compare Tzaneen municipality or Soweto with the DA (run municipalities). The ANC is largely running municipalities that are impoverished, that cannot pay and raise revenues.”

Shingange insisted that it is unfair and unfortunate to urge ANC councillors to tour and learn from “people who served a minority”.

“As Cosatu we denounce that. We think it has been unfortunate and I think we could have a better example on how we can improve on how we manage our municipalities,” said Shingange.

Earlier this week, IOL reported that Ramaphosa admitted that it pained him that the DA-led municipalities always outperform the ANC ones in delivering services, urging party councillors to up their game.

Addressing the ANC’s roll call for councillors event at the FNB Stadium in Soweto, Ramaphosa told the party members to learn from other municipalities that are run better, singling out Cape Town and Stellenbosch. 

“I can name it here because there's nothing wrong with competition. They are often DA-controlled municipalities. We need to ask ourselves, what is it that they are doing that is better than what we are doing? 

“And there's nothing wrong with us saying we want to go and see what Cape Town is doing. We want to go and see what Stellenbosch is doing,” he said.

He added that they should learn from their craft to move up the ladder, saying: “We cannot forever stay at the bottom.”

“It hurts me deeply when I continue to see that our municipalities sometimes tend to move even backwards. And you are the people who can improve that. The audit outcomes are important.”

According to Ramaphosa, the Auditor General told him that a number of the ANC-led municipalities' financial statements were not even prepared at the council level but outside. 

jonisayi.maromo@iol.co.za

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