ANC accused of monopolising power
Sapa
THE Cabinet has approved a draft bill that would give the government wide powers to intervene at local-authority level, prompting protests that the ANC is after a stranglehold on municipalities.
Government spokesman Themba Maseko told a media briefing yesterday that the 17th Constitutional Amendment Bill would be gazetted for public comment before being submitted to Parliament.
He said the main aim of the bill was to ensure that national policy to boost service delivery was properly implemented.
The bill would also promote regional efficiencies and economies of scale at local- government level, he said.
“The bill will also facilitate the restructuring of the electricity distribution industry and the possible regionalisation of other municipal functions .”
Maseko said municipalities that defied government policy to plough energy revenue back into electricity infrastructure should be brought into line.
The bill has become a major election issue. The DA has lambasted it as “clear proof that the ANC wants to change the Constitution to entrench its power”.
DA leader and Cape Town mayor Helen Zille called on voters to deny the ruling party a two-thirds majority and stop it changing the Constitution single-handedly.
The SA Local Government Association said the bill was a bid by the government to speed up its plans to create six regional electricity distributors and remove power delivery deadlocks.
The association was against “an outright removal of the municipalities’ executive authority over electricity reticulation” because it would have severe financial implications for local governments.
A young dictatorship in the making! I pray that the ANC are denied their two thirds majority next week or heaven help us
!