Reshuffling an electoral PR exercise

This emerged after the provincial secretary of the African National Congress, Hope Papo, announced this during the Sedibeng Council sitting at the mayor’s parlour, Vereeniging last Tuesday.

The DA said the reshuffle is nothing but a desperate PR exercise ahead of the 2016 elections: “This has nothing to do with addressing the current financial mess at the Emfuleni Municipality. The aim of the ANC,” said Councillor Simon Mollo, DA caucus leader Sedibeng District Municipality, “is nothing more than a desperate attempt to score some political points ahead of the upcoming elections.”

The DA said, “The reshuffling is too little too late when it comes to fixing the failing municipalities.

“The ANC has failed an attempt to push the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) to create a new metro municipality by merging the bankrupt Emfuleni Municipality with the financially stable DA-run Midvaal Municipality,” said Mollo.

The DA took the MDB’s decision to merge Midvaal with the ANC-governed Emfuleni to court because they recognised that the move would lead to the deterioration of service delivery in Gauteng’s best- run municipality.

The Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC), Emfuleni Chief Whip, Appa Pooe, said the reshuffling came at a time that the ANC ship in Emfuleni is about to sink deeper,

“It was a good decision to deploy ANC regional Chairperson Mahole Mofokeng to rescue Emfuleni,” said Pooe. “With the deployment of the other MMCs to Sedibeng, I am not sure, but I suspect their future is doomed. They might not be able to hold on.”

Pooe believes that it might be the strategy of the party to shift the deadwood ahead of next year’s election.
lazarus.dithgiso@media24.com