Opposition lambaste ANC councillors refusing 4% salary contribution to Solidarity Fund

The Solidarity Fund could be a farce at local government level as some councillors from the ANC at Buffalo City Metro flatly refused to contribute to it.

The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters at Buffalo City Metro lashed out at the ANC in the council for letting its members refuse to contribute.

This despite an initiative from the South African Local Government Association (Salga) that all councillors should donate money towards establishing the fund that would be used to help destitute community members during the ongoing coronavirus lockdown.

All but a few ANC councillors have refused to have the 4% deducted from their salaries. A council meeting that was organised to discuss the matter and take a resolution collapsed recently after some ANC councillors refused to cooperate.

However, the city’s mayoral committee members and chairs of section 79 committees came forward and signed forms allowing the municipality to deduct the 4% towards the fund.

Some ANC PR councillors such as MMC for engineering and infrastructure Ncedo Kumbaca and MMC for local economic development Mzwandile Vaaiboom publicly signed the form committing themselves to contribute.

“To me this is a moral and revolutionary duty or obligation, based on human solidarity,” said Kumbaca. “I am doing this wholeheartedly in pursuit of a just cause to help those in dire need at this critical moment in the history of humankind in general and SA in particular.”

Both the EFF and the Democratic Alliance confirmed they had been contributing to the fund since April.

All EFF politicians were obliged by the party to give a third of their salaries to the Solidarity Fund, while DA councillor Dinesh Vallabh said all their councillors had contributed a portion of their salaries to a central kitty of the party which was sent to the Solidarity Fund. Vallabh, who had been a DA councillor in Buffalo City for 20 years, said they were willing to contribute because it was for a good cause.

The ANC has 60 councillors in the metro, followed by the DA at 24 and the EFF with 8. Buffalo City EFF leader and regional secretary Mziyanda Hlekiso criticised the ANC for not leading by example.

“This matter was on the council agenda but it was not resolved because the meeting collapsed after the ANC councillors refused to contribute the 4%. This shows they are hypocrites of the ANC,” Hlekiso said.

He said this indicated that the ANC councillors did not trust each other because this was a proposal from Salga supported at the top by the ANC.

“All the ANC councillors except the executive members rejected this idea to say they cannot be forced to contribute, but it must be a voluntary contribution. That way, they collapsed the meeting that was to pass this resolution.

“How do you expect the opposition to contribute when the ruling party members are refusing? They don’t trust each other … We are proud as the EFF that we are donating.

“We started in April to give 33.3%, or a quarter of our salaries, to the Solidarity Fund.”

ANC speaker Alfred Mtsi, who is supposed to receive the signed forms from his councillors, could not be reached for comment. He had not returned calls at the time of going to press.

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