The ANC statement accusing the DA of targeting departments under its control has heightened tensions within the fragile KwaZulu-Natal government of provincial unity (GPU).
The tensions began when a video of MEC for finance Francois Rodgers emerged, in which he stated that the provincial department of education, under MEC Sipho Hlomuka from the ANC, is effectively under administration due to its engagement in reckless spending patterns.
Rodgers, who is from the DA, also said that the provincial Department of Transport, under ANC MEC Siboniso Duma, is a few days away from being placed under administration.
He was speaking at a DA event in Kokstad. Rodgers said he is using the power that the ANC’s former MECs of Finance avoided.
League tells DA to leave GPU
That comment angered the ANC Youth League in the province, which said the DA should feel free to leave the GPU and told Rodgers that he has no authority to place government departments under administration.
“For the record, there is no piece of legislation that empowers Francois Rogers to place any government department under administration. Maybe in Orania he will have such powers, but not in KwaZulu-Natal,” the league said on Tuesday.
On Wednesday morning, the DA in the province fired back at the youth league and said Rodgers is doing his work and should be left alone.
It added that the statement by the league reads as a laundry list of objections to good governance, ethical leadership, and financial controls imposed by Rodgers on a province that, under the ANC, saw a total collapse of all of these metrics.
“This left the MEC with the unenviable task of reducing the budget deficit left by the ANC of R9-billion. In just one year, MEC Rodgers has cut this deficit in half,” the DA said.
“The DA does not expect the ANC in KZN to buy into this as it stands in complete opposition to what it is used to, which is unchecked power and uncontrolled spending.
“While the ANCYL KZN may protest at the advances the DA is making in the GPU, we will certainly defend our MECs from unwarranted attacks for doing their jobs no matter how difficult that may be for other parties to accept.”
ANC-run departments targeted
A few hours later on the same day, Mike Mabuyakhulu, the coordinator of the provincial task team, told Rodgers that he was targeting ANC-run departments and reminded him that there was no freelancing in the GPU.
“Now, you are telling your party that you have already placed the education department [under administration], and you are also saying you account to nobody,” Mabuyakhulu said.
Rodgers’ office issued a statement to defend his decision, saying the education department has been overspending for years and has been instructed to pay all outstanding invoices before it issues new tenders.
Rodgers’ office said: “By March this year, the education department had overspent its budget, prompting an intervention from [the] KZN provincial treasury.
“The provincial treasury has legislated powers and responsibilities in terms of the Public Finance Management Act.”
