As municipal basket cases go, eThekwini is right up there.
Aside from its messy coalition arrangement, the metro is facing a growing rates revolt, backlash against spending R1.7m on an awards ceremony for municipal staff, and opposition to an eye-watering salary increase for its municipal manager. All of this comes amid a service delivery crisis, with a collapsing sewerage system and infrastructure in terminal decline.
Shifting dynamics in the ANC and IFP are further complicating the crisis. These two parties will tussle for control of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), the country’s second-largest province by population, in the 2024 election.
The rates boycott began in late July, when the Westville Ratepayers Association decided to withhold its rates in protest at nonexistent service delivery. The movement is gaining traction: from 200 residents initially, it is expected that up to 1,000 will be withholding their rates by month-end. And with nine other ratepayers associations now included, the initiative has been renamed the eThekwini Ratepayers Movement (ERPM), says chair Asad Gaffar.
The withheld rates have been placed in a trust account, and the ERPM has lodged a formal dispute with the city in terms of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act.
The ERPM has also lodged a court application to prevent the authorities from disconnecting services to those participating in the boycott. The precedent-setting case is scheduled to be heard only on November 1 — but if the city cuts off any ERPM member before that date, the organisation will institute urgent legal action, Gaffar says.
He tells the FM the group has held two meetings with the city so far and the response has been relatively positive. For instance, after the ERPM opposed the roughly 18% tariff increases the city was set to enforce, these were revised down to 15%. But those decisions, he adds, failed to follow set procedures.
“We want the city to function within the ambit of the law, they cannot take decisions without following due process,” he says.
At the second meeting, held last Thursday, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda responded to the ERPM. In a media briefing on Friday, he indicated that he would like to see the dispute between the parties resolved “amicably”.
Gaffar says the mayor appears to sympathise with many of the points made by the movement. “He seems to agree with a lot of what we have raised, mainly that we want greater oversight over the way money is being spent by the city. The problem is that resolutions are steamrollered through council,” he says.
This is of grave concern to the ERPM, particularly as the city moves to spend R1.7m on an awards ceremony for employees. It has also handed its manager, Musa Mbhele, a salary increase of R1.3m. That brings his remuneration package to R3.9m — almost on par with that of President Cyril Ramaphosa — less than a year after he was appointed to the post, and without any tangible performance outcomes.
We kept writing to them to raise these issues and they kept ignoring us … until we warned that we would stop paying. We have to take drastic steps to get them to listen
— Asad Gaffar
In the most recent auditor-general’s report on municipal outcomes, eThekwini comes off badly. In one instance of irregular spending, the report flags R21m paid to a consultant between 2018 and 2020 without any evidence that the service had been provided.
The report also highlights the lack of maintenance plans. While these should inform the city’s R65.5bn budget — R8.1bn for capital expenditure — it faces “major water and electricity supply challenges due to failing infrastructure”.
The report says: “The crumbling municipal infrastructure has not only affected service delivery but has also increased the risk of harm to communities and the environment.”
It’s one of the reasons the ERPM is demanding that the budget be reprioritised, with the needs of citizens placed first. “A lot of money is just leaving through the back door,” says Gaffar.
Adding to the issue, he says, is that the council is failing in its oversight role, and the city’s executive committee — which includes opposition parties — appears ineffectual at holding the mayor and his team to account.
“The opposition is either colluding or they just don’t care, they are failing in their mandate. They know the issues, but there is no-one taking corrective action,” he says.
“Over the past five years, the council has lost R50bn and yet we now have tariff increases. We kept writing to them to raise these issues and they kept ignoring us … until we warned that we would stop paying. We have to take drastic steps to get them to listen.”
Opposition parties, for their part, say they understand the frustrations of residents, but caution them to act within the ambit of the law.
According to independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga, this type of boycott has been taking place for years in various iterations — it’s a way of citizens sidestepping the electoral process in a bid to be heard. The eThekwini issue, he adds, shows that residents are looking to survive the collapse of the state’s capacity, which affects all aspects of public life, from the provision of electricity and water to eradicating crime and corruption.
What should make the government nervous, says Mathekga, is that this form of boycott is becoming acceptable to generally law-abiding citizens.
A paper on withholding rates by the University of the Western Cape’s local government project indicates that the phenomenon is relatively widespread. It says about 220 communities are engaged in disputes with their municipalities, and residents of about 20 towns across the country are withholding their rates.
It’s not something that has universal approval: the Constitutional Court, for example, has frowned on such forms of protests, saying they have no place in a participatory democracy. But the ERPM wants the city to adhere to the public participation provided for in law when it takes municipal decisions — something it has, until now, ignored, says Gaffar.
The crumbling municipal infrastructure has not only affected service delivery but has also increased the risk of harm to communities and the environment
— Auditor-general report
He is adamant that the boycott has nothing to do with politics, politicians or next year’s election. It is a culmination of the frustration by residents over the way the city handles their money. Still, it’s likely to have some political impact — a dispute that has reached this level is an indictment of the metro and speaks volumes about how it is run.
It is an awkward position for the ANC’s Kaunda, as the metro includes about 31% of the KZN electorate and is set to be hotly contested next year. His party is feeling the heat too: the ANC in KZN announced last week that it has taken a decision to “directly supervise the work” of its representatives in the council, citing a clause in the party’s constitution.
“The ANC at provincial level has decided to invoke clause 19.9.8 of the ANC constitution and we will now directly supervise the work of the ANC caucus in the eThekwini metro,” provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo told a media briefing. He emphasised the need to strengthen the interface between the political and administrative leadership of the council.
But the party’s provincial leadership is itself on notice, after the national ANC roped in former provincial heavyweight Mike Mabuyakhulu to help it prepare for the polls.
The former KZN deputy chair stepped aside from his duties while facing corruption charges but returned to provincial politics this month after being acquitted. This has left some in the party nervous, given that Mabuyakhulu is a staunch Ramaphosa supporter. He’s likely to overshadow any of the current leaders to be the preferred candidate for premier, should the ANC win the province.
As for what’s to come, independent elections analyst Wayne Sussman tells the FM that by-elections show the continuation of a trend that puts the ANC on the decline, the IFP making an impressive comeback and the EFF “collapsing” after its relatively impressive performance in the 2021 election.
Kaunda’s handling of the rates revolt could be yet another front for attacks on the ANC in the province, whether or not that’s the intention of ratepayers.
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