The ANC through the Municipal Demarcation Board is attempting to merge uMngeni with the ANC-run Mpofana and Impendle municipalities.
It is no secret that since the DA’s Chris Pappas became the mayor of uMngeni on 21 November 2021, this municipality has undergone a transformation. As an editorial in the Citizen today rightly states: “The DA-run municipality of uMngeni has, under mayor Chris Pappas, become a beacon of efficiency and hope in the current cesspool of corruption and collapse which is our local government system”.
The DA believes that this attempted merger is a blatant gerrymandering and an abuse of power. It has nothing to do with improving service delivery and everything with the ANC wanting to centralise power.
An amalgamation with these municipalities will bring sorrow and collapse to uMngeni.
The consequences of such a merger would be exactly the same as it was in the North West in 2016 when Tlokwe and Ventersdorp were amalgamated to form JB Marks Municipality: It lead to a distribution of misery with service delivery in towns and townships of Potchefstroom rapidly becoming as bad as was the norm in the ANC-led Ventersdorp.
The DA today calls on all South Africans to join our fight to stop the capture of uMngeni. Let us stop the ANC from destroying this municipality and disposing of Mayor Chris Pappas.
Because it is legally bound to do so, the Demarcation Board has called for public input in the redetermination of municipal boundaries. We urge the residents of uMngeni to download the objection form to this merger, fill it in and to send it to the demarcation board at registry@demarcation.org.za and to copy in saveumngeni@da.org.za.
Help us to send a very clear message to the demarcation board namely that South Africans will not tolerate this kind of political manipulation. The closer we get to the elections next year, the more the ANC will come up with all kinds of tricks to try to prevent their inevitable beating at the ballot box.