ANC attemps to hide their failure to deliver in Buffalo City

Today The Buffalo City Council met to adopt the Mid-Year Adjustment Budget. In my opinion, this is nothing more than a window dressing exercise where the ANC is looking to reduce the budget by overR300 million as they are unable to spend it in time. They are unable to spend as officials do not have the skills to spend, largely as a result of cadre deployment which destroys the ability of municipalities to deliver. 

In the face of crumbling infrastructure, they have decreased the capital project budget by 11,5% in order to save face at the end of the financial year. You will remember how BCM was criticized for only spending half of its capital budget last year. 

Hundreds of millions of rands in housing grants are being returned to the Treasury as BCM is unable to spend them. I wonder how indigent voters would feel if they knew their government had the opportunity to build them homes but due to incompetence they are still living in shacks? 

What will happen to the officials that failed to do their jobs? Likely nothing, as performance management is a swear word at BCM.

The Mid-Year Budget Adjustment is nothing more than a farce used to hide the ANC governments inability to govern. 

Making SA great is a far better way to honour Madiba

I’m personally unsure about the decision of putting a living former president on our banknotes. While I think all South African’s owe Madiba immense gratitude for the sacrifices he made for all of us, I’m moved to think about Tim Cohen’s comments in Buisness Day when he expressed his discomfort about the banknotes: “We, of course venerate Mandela, but should a living politician, very associated with one political party, really be on all the banknotes?” 

As Phylicia Oppelt said, “Leave the rhino on our bank notes, because soon it will be the only place where our children will be able to see rhinos.”

Besides this criticism, is this truly a fitting monument to Madiba? If we really want to honour him, we should focus on building the country he envisioned. I think Madiba would rather see the creation of jobs; building of houses, hospitals and schools; reformation of education and fighting corruption before having his face on banknote. By making SA a dynamic and positive country for all who live in it is the best way to honour those that sacrificed for freedom.

Lack of skills & experience weaken SA’s municipalities

Lack of management experience and skills threaten the financial stability of many municipalities, according to the latest Ratings Afrika Municipal Financial Stability Index released this week.  Ratings Afrika defines financial sustainability as: "The financial ability to deliver services, develop and maintain the infrastructure required by its residents without unplanned increases in rates and taxes or a reduction in the level of services and the capacity to absorb financial shocks caused by natural, economic and other adversities without external financial assistance."

Once again, the Western Cape as well as DA run municipalities scored tops overall, although there is still room for improvement. Surprisingly, the Eastern Cape scored 4^th overall – behind the Western Cape, KZN and the Northern Cape. The lowest scoring province overall was the Free State, with a score of 36 out of 100. This follows a report released but the National Treasury last month that indicated that 66 of the country’s 283 municipalities were in financial distress last June. Political interference in the financial management of municipalities was cited as an issue by the Treasury. “Proper procedures are undermined. The result is that the management of municipal finances deteriorate.” The report cited under spending of capital budgets and overspending of operation budgets as reasons for service delivery deteriorating.

Midvaal, the only DA-governed municipality in Gauteng, was ranked the best municipality in the province by Ratings Afrika. This is the latest in a string of accolades for Midvaal that includes awards for job creation, service delivery and quality of life. Johannesburg was rated the worst-performing metro in the country with a ranking of 26 index points. DA-governed Cape Town, by contrast, was rated the top performing metro with a ranking of 63 index points. The difference between these two metros is like night and day. While Johannesburg falters as a result of billing chaos and inability to collect revenue, Cape Town prospers through sound financial management and the roll-out of services for all.

The worst municipality in the Eastern Cape was Kouga (Jeffrys Bay)with 67,4% of pending on staff costs and only 6% on maintenance. Buffalo City Metro also performed poorly, which is not surprising as the institution has not had a permanent CFO for several years and has a history of under spending on its capital budget.

The picture emerging is becoming crystal clear: DA governments do it better. We do it better because we understand that, by paying attention to financial management, we can deliver services and improve people's lives.

Zuma vs Zille

Last week we had Zuma’s State of the Nation Address. This week we heard Helen Zille on the State of the Western Province. Both cited poverty as a key cause for concern.

Their approach to this issue is where the debate begins and ends.

Zuma began at the top, with promises worth billions of rand to improve production, transport, housing and such-like. As promises, they far exceeded his usual bland utterances to ‘do something’ and many people praised him for finding the courage to break from this tired pattern at last.

Zille, on the other hand, started as always at grass-roots – where poverty roosts. Her plan for the Western Cape shows an in-depth understanding of the plight endured by those living on the bread-line and she placed her goals within their reach.

Both Zuma and Zille embraced an eventual ideal that rests in the heart of South Africa’s grief and needs desperately to be realised. The difference is that Zille’s plans are practicable and Zuma’s are not. The Western Cape has dragged itself from ANC mismanagement to becoming the best-run province in the country through dogged service delivery – which the successful DA is first to admit is still far from perfect.

Yet the Western Cape has made small inroads that amount to giant steps. Despite an influx from other provinces by those rightfully seeking a better life, unemployment figures continue to fall. Imagine how much greater this drop might be, if the Western Cape did not have to bear the burden of her less fortunate neighbours?

Spurred by ANC agitators, these infiltrators complain that they do not get what they demand from the DA – despite promises honoured and better service delivery than they would enjoy anywhere else in the country.

Other provinces have succumbed, not only to lack of service delivery, but to corruption on a scale that has left Limpopo and the Free State (as well as aspects of Gauteng and the Eastern Cape) subject to supervision by National Government.

The billions of rand required to implement Jacob Zuma’s plans from the top down are already missing, if not misappropriated or squandered – to the point of having to borrow money from abroad. How on earth does he propose to fund his grandiose ideas?

Zuma’s State of the Nation Address shows him to be oblivious to realities

Although the infrastructure projects mentioned by President Zuma in his State of the Nation Address are welcome, there are question marks over how we are going to find an additional R330 billion per year to pay for them. If the President had the courage to take on his alliance partners, he would have announced plans to cut the public sector wage bill to pay for the new infrastructure he proposed.
 
South Africans got a speech designed to put a positive gloss on government performance and appease the governing party’s alliance partners ahead of the Mangaung elective conference in December. As a result, the President appeared out of touch with reality.
 
DA MP Manny De Freitas said that the President appears to be oblivious to the ineffeciency and corruption that appears to be prevalent within the Home Affairs department.
 
“The President needed to set out a bold vision for South Africa with an honest assessment of the state of our nation,” Instead he used the opportunity to engage in a Public Relations exercise designed to keep his alliance partners on his side ahead of Mangaung.

Malema's death is a warning to ANC 'comrades'

We were all quick to rejoice at the loss of Julius Malema's appeal last week, but few have stopped to analysis the story behind the story. I'll be the first to agree that Malema's outbursts were a danger to South Africa, both politically and economically. The ANC did, however, tolerate his questionable and damaging views for an awfully long time...

The reason for the ANC's tolerance is quite simple - he was useful to his political handlers at a time when they were looking to oust Mbeki, and when there asset became a liability the ANC practised sound economics and cut their ties. This "liability" was more related to his anti-Zuma campaign and less about his racist remarks and mine nationalization proposals.

This is a lesson to members of the ANC that wish to speak their minds, perhaps about relevant  issues like corruption and cadre deployment, that the leadership of the ANC will not tolerate those that don't tow the party line. The 11th commandment: "Thou shalt not speak ill of JZ." (Sounds very communist to me... Oh wait, it is!) This is worrying, as by hindering (constructive) dialogue between it's members the party will continue down the dark road it is travelling - dragging the country along with it.

Juju should have realized that his anti-ANC statements would be political suicide as we have seen that even Trevor  Manual, the man behind the presidency, isn't allowed to criticize the ANC and its policies.

Remember Orwell's 'Animal Farm', an allegorical critique of Russia post-revolution: "All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."