The ANC is a party of many contradictions. Its incongruities were on full display at its Dr WB Rubusana regional conference this week. Speaking on the opening day of the conference, provincial party chair Oscar Mabuyane reportedly read the riot act to party leaders in Buffalo City, reminding them that the economy of the Eastern Cape largely relied on an optimally functioning Buffalo City metro.
He said those elected must be able to read the economy with precision, anticipate structural shifts and steward this metro with strategic foresight. Finance minister Enoch Godongwana in August wrote to BCM and put it on notice over its financial mismanagement, lack of accountability and escalating irregular, wasteful and fruitless expenditure. The municipality reportedly accumulated R403m in unauthorised expenditure and R1.31bn in irregular expenditure in 2023/2024.
It is now carrying R10.55bn in cumulative irregular expenditure. It has spent millions of rands on dozens of projects that were shoddily done or never finished. Tap water outages and sewage spills into estuaries and onto beaches that were once tourist hotspots are common.
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This same mayor once toldCarte Blanchethat she had not known the Cambridge Crematorium was out of order because it had not yet been published in the Daily Dispatch. Not at all deterred by this, Mabuyane, apparently in the interest of ANC unity and discipline in a region torn apart by factionalism, ensured Faku’s conference victory by negotiating for others contesting the position to step down. Traditionally, the two positions go hand in hand and political pundits say her re-election as regional chair means she is a shoe-in for mayor after the 2026 local government elections — if the ANC wins, of course.
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