Criticism of the KwaZulu-Natal Government of Provincial Unity is growing with the ANC Youth League and Umkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) calling for it to be dismantled while in other quarters it has been described as a coalition for political preservation rather than for the service delivery.
The Youth League issued a statement last week, calling on its mother body, the ANC, to leave the coalition, citing the GPU as a threat to the party’s identity.
The League also pointed to the removal of the ANC in the Umkhanyakude District Municipality as the last straw and why it should leave the GPU.
On Monday, the MKP filed a motion of no confidence against Premier Thami Ntuli, calling for his removal. The MKP cited poor governance in the Premier’s Office.
In the 80-seat chamber, the GPU is made up of 41 seats made up of the IFP (15), ANC(14), DA (11), NFP (1) against the MKP (37) and EFF (2). Although ANC, DA and IFP are together in the GPU, they remain rivals at local government level.
Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu said the GPU does not benefit the people of the province and there was no way that a coalition with the ANC on board, was going to provide benefit especially after voters rejected the ANC at last year’s national general elections.
He cited the continued alleged corruption in the ANC-led departments health, transport and education, which he said Ntuli was not able to effectively deal with because of the coalition agreement.
“The GPU was not founded on a service delivery basis but on political preservation, it would be naive to think that this coalition was going to benefit the people of the province.
“For me, the beneficiary here is the ANC which managed to retain power through this unholy arrangement despite being rejected by the people. This is nothing but political preservation which was created to keep MKP and EFF out,” said Mngomezulu.
He said that instead of focusing on serving the people, the GPU partners are busy competing with DA MECs trying to outclass others to show they are the ones who are delivering services more than any other MECs.
Xolani Dube, the founder of the Xubera Institute for Research and Development has been critical of the coalition.
Dube accused the DA of enabling ANC corruption by participating in the GPU. He claimed that the DA’s alliance with the ANC will have devastating consequences for all residents regardless of race, calling for the rejection of a pact which he labelled as ‘unholy’.
Hitting back at critics of the GPU, ANC provincial coordinator Mike Mabuyakhulu defended the coalition, arguing that it has brought stability to the province.
“Anyone not seeing the progress that is being made by GPU in this province, surely is not living on this planet. Everybody can see that we are saving thousands of jobs with the stability that has been created by our coalition,” said Mabuyakhulu.
His sentiments were echoed by IFP provincial leader and Premier Ntuli, who said the stability that was brought by the coalition has resulted in greater business confidence and economic growth of 0.28% in the third quarter. He said that in the last investment conference, the province and the private sector had committed R80 billion.
“We are the only province that registered growth in the third quarter and with another investment conference next week, we are hoping for R90 billion. The growth in business confidence in our province was as a result of our campaign to fight crime, which is yielding results. We are on the right track and we will not bother ourselves with people who said this coalition was not going to last three months,” said Ntuli
DA provincial deputy leader Sithembiso Ngema also rejected criticism of the GPU and defended his party’s participation in the coalition, arguing that since its formation, the residents have already seen benefits of his party involvement.
Ngema said under the party provincial leader, Francois Rodgers, the finance department has implemented measures to reduce non-essential spending while ensuring that essential services are not compromised.
This includes reducing international travel, catering expenses and the use of expensive hired vehicles for senior officials.
“Under MEC Rodgers’ leadership, the finance department has made significant strides in promoting cost containment, fighting corruption and improving service delivery,” said Ngema.
