Mantashe has the right idea but must go a whole lot further

Finally the ruling party has woken from its slumber to the realisation that something has to be done to fix our gravely ailing municipalities.

ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said the number of municipalities, at present 283, would have to be reduced to fast-track service delivery.

"The ANC must publicly and decisively deal with poor performance and corruption," he said after the party's lekgotla earlier this week.

The burdening of the country with a huge number of municipalities, the only function of which is to give sheltered employment to party loyalists, is destructive.

It makes no sense to allow municipalities to exist only so that comrades can milk the system. It makes no sense to pump millions into these municipalities when their residents get nothing in return.

With local government elections around the corner, the ANC will have to do more than reduce the number of municipalities.

It should push further than Mantashe proposes and demand that those elected to senior local government positions not only meet the requirements for the job but sign legally binding performance agreements.

It cannot be that, at a time when South Africans are being told to tighten their belts, our officials continue to raid the national vault.

We hope that Mantashe and the entire ANC leadership are not merely playing to the gallery, making the right noises, ahead of next year's polls.

The cadre deployment policy that the ANC has tried so hard to justify has failed dismally as the comrades focus more on their bank accounts than on serving the people.

The SA Municipal Demarcation Board will this morning announce its decision on whether to grant the residents of Malamulele their own municipality. Whatever the decision, service delivery should be the central consideration.

The stand-off in Malamulele and elsewhere goes to the heart of how we are mismanaging some of our municipalities. We must sometimes accept that fewer is better.