DA forges ahead with fight for good governance

by Andrew Louw – DA Northern Cape Provincial Leader

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Date: 30 August 2018

Release: Immediate

The Democratic Alliance in the Northern Cape is again calling on Mayor Mangaliso Matika to step down and, if he still won’t, we call on the ANC to remove him as a matter of urgency, as he has become the prime enemy of the people and of good governance in Sol Plaatje municipality.

It is ironic that the ANC provincial secretary, Deshi Ngxana, has referred to the DA as the enemy in the Matika debacle. While we wish that we alone could take all the credit for the upsurge of anti-Matika and anti-ANC sentiments doing the rounds in Kimberley, our voice echoes the voice of the greater community.

The bottom line is that Matika, and not the DA, has failed the people of Kimberley, and the people have lost faith in him – yesterday’s court judgment does not change this fact.

Under Matika’s leadership, Kimberley has gone from bad to worse. More and more people are facing a daily battle to cross rivers of raw sewage on their doorsteps. Driving on the city’s donga-streets requires a 4×4. The city is a filthy breeding ground for rats. Open spaces are overgrown and a prime hideout for burglars, who are increasingly on the prowl in the city’s poorly lit streets.

Erven are poorly managed and are dished out to connected cadres, at the expense of development and to the detriment of Previously Disadvantaged Individuals (PDI’s).

Municipal services are directed at ANC strongholds, while the rest of Kimberley is pushed aside. Money gets squandered on luxury cars and accommodation for Matika, yet the people of Kimberley must, year after year, pay more for less.

This is wrong and unjust and simply cannot be tolerated.

The fact that the ANC chooses to look at Matika’s Kimberley with rose-tinted glasses, is ridiculous.

It is, however, characteristic of the ANC to place loyalty to connected cadres above the wellbeing of society. We saw it with Zuma and we saw it with Supra. They both clung to power while South Africa was looted and the North West burned. And in the end, they lost their positions of power anyway.

It is not necessary for the people of Kimberley to also endure such pointless destruction.

The people have spoken. For the sake of Kimberley, for the sake of jobs, for the sake of schooling, for the sake of service delivery, for the sake of the safety of the people, we are turning up the volume of our plea that Matika must go.

The DA may have lost the court case to have Matika removed as Mayor, but we are not defeated, we are invigorated. It is time to take the fight for good governance of Sol Plaatje municipality to another level. We will work harder to see that the darkness, that has extinguished Kimberley’s sparkle, is overcome so that this city can shine again.