DA to fight new borders

The DA has vowed to fight the merging of municipalities in Gauteng to the bitter end.

Though only three of 157 proposals to be considered by the Municipal Demarcation Board are for changes in Gauteng municipal boundaries, those three have brought in 9792 objections by the public.

They are the merging of Westonaria and Randfontein, of Emfuleni and Midvaal, and of Lesedi and Ekurhuleni.

The DA says the proposals are politically motivated, with the ANC trying to take over Midvaal, the only Gauteng municipality governed by the DA.

DA Gauteng spokesman on local government Fred Nel said: "What should happen is to change legislation to allow Gauteng to have municipalities existing without district municipalities . We agree that the two-tier system is not working.

"We are also of the opinion that you can have Emfuleni, Midvaal and Lesedi operating on their own and continuing on their own, without having to form a metro.

"This is definitely politically motivated," he said.

Nel said the merger of Randfontein and Westonaria would not solve the towns' problems.

"When you merge them... you still retain the same people. There will be nothing new on offer. There is [also] no guarantee that the management of the new municipality will improve," he said.

In the past two weeks residents in both municipalities have embarked on separate service delivery protests.

Nel argued that the integration of the municipalities would take a long time and would hinder the delivery of municipal services.

But the ANC said it was moving ahead with the mergers because they were part of the party's 2055 "vision".

ANC Gauteng spokesman Dumisa Ntuli said the rationale for the mergers was to strengthen small municipalities' revenue collection and financial resources, and thereby make them sustainable.

"The metro system is working very well in Gauteng. We don't want districts because some of them are collapsing because of poor finances," he said.

Ntuli said the DA had not helped to develop the Midvaal area and was hindering development attempts by the province.

"Midvaal can't be an island on its own," he said.

The ANC wants to have only five big metros in Gauteng: Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Tshwane, West Rand and Vaal.