DECISIVE ACTION: ANC loses control of Makana for first time in municipality’s history

The ANC’s long hold on Makana has come to an end, and it wasn’t a traditional political party that helped shake things up.

For the first time in the municipality’s history, the ANC has lost control of council.

The question now is who will join forces to govern Makana – and whether the parties can put their differences aside for long enough to fix a municipality in desperate need of a turnaround.

The Makana United Civic Movement (MUCM), a community-based organisation contesting its first election, has secured four council seats and 19.51% of the vote, putting it in the mix as coalition negotiations begin.

The ANC received 31.27% of the vote, securing 10 seats, followed by the DA with 27.24% and six seats.

But the standout result came from newcomer Makana United Civic Movement (MUCM), which secured 19.51% of the vote and four seats in its first election contest.

The remaining five seats went to the EFF, SACP, PA, Makana Citizens Front and ActionSA, with each party securing one.

Makana has long struggled with failing basic services, with some communities going weeks without water while thousands of litres of treated water are lost through leaks in its ageing and deteriorating pipe network.

The state of the roads is no better, with motorists forced to negotiate a network of crumbling streets where dodging one pothole often means landing in another.

These service delivery issues forced organisations such as the MUCM to contest the elections in a bid to turn around the fortunes of the municipality for the betterment of its people.

Speaking on Thursday, MUCM chairperson Andile Peter said people were tired of the ANC because it had failed the residents for years. Residents therefore wanted change at any cost. 

He said it was not by accident that the organisation found itself in this position, but by the design of the voters. 

“The residents voted for us because they strongly believe that the failures of the ANC can’t continue; otherwise, if they do, the people are doomed.”

Peter said the executive leaders of the organisation had yet to convene to discuss coalition possibilities.

‘No compromises’

“We want to be clear that we will negotiate with any party, but won’t compromise on certain principles such as financial management and accountability, service delivery and the recruitment of skilled people to fix the broken municipality. On this basis, we will negotiate with any party that shares the same values and principles,” he said.

When it was put to Peter that some residents who voted for the MUCM might view it as spitting on their vote if the organisation formed a government with the ANC, he said: “These are the kind of factors that we will consider in our internal discussions. Ours is to follow the mandate of the people, and if they want the ANC out and for us to be in the opposition, then that’s what will happen.”

ANC Sarah Baartman (which Makana falls under) regional chair Mabhuti Matyumza said the fall in the number of votes for the ANC did not mean that the people of Makana were rejecting the party.

Instead, Matyumza attributed the drop to low voter turnout.

“I don’t think the ANC has done anything wrong; the election outcome reflects that the people of Makana still trust the ANC. It is the ANC that received the majority of votes out of all the 13 parties that contested,” said Matyumza.

He said the party had learnt that registered voters did not go out in their numbers to make their mark.

“The people, especially the black voters, must start taking the elections very seriously and come out to vote. Voting in numbers limits the unnecessary coordination of state power. Now the low voter turnout will prevent us from being in charge of things.”

Asked if the MUCM might have garnered its votes because people had lost confidence in the ANC over the service delivery issues affecting the area, he said: “I’m not saying there have not been problems that resulted in the people losing confidence in the ANC. I just want to emphasise that we did not get the majority vote due to a low voter turnout. Us receiving the most votes means the majority of the people in Makana still have confidence in the ANC, despite the service delivery challenges, so we cannot rule this out.”

Matyumza said they were contesting the seat allocations, as the 10 seats they had been awarded were merely a reflection of the number of wards the ANC won.

“When they (IEC) calculated for proportional representation (PR), they did not allocate any seats to us for it, despite the ANC having the most votes, which means the PR vote is not included.”

He said they were also contesting the results in Sundays River Valley Municipality, where the ANC won 51.1% of the vote, but had been allocated the same number (eight) of seats as the opposition.

Matyumza said these issues had been escalated to the ANC provincial leadership in the hope of lodging a formal complaint on behalf of the party. DM