Faction Fight: Deberha And Manxadanxada’s Impact On An Eastern Cape Municipality

By Zandisile Maliti

This book exposes the impact that the warring factions in the Eastern Cape Province of the African National Congress (ANC) have had on the administration of local municipalities. In addition to exposing events in this book for the attention of authorities, the author also hopes to inspire active citizenry in local government in order to disturb the current state of affairs in which Deberha and Manxadanxada’s cronyism and patronage defines Eastern Cape municipalities.

About the author

After years of fighting apartheid through participation in the mass democratic movement, workers’ struggle and ANC, Zandisile Maliti earned his LLM (Master of Laws in Labour Law) at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in 2016. After stints with the Eastern Cape Education Department and the National Educational, Health and Allied Workers’ Union/NEHAWU (Matthew Goniwe Region and Head Office), he joined the Intsika Yethu Local Municipality in Cofimvaba in 2010. He worked in various managerial positions for almost 8 years, gaining an insider’s insight into how local government works (or doesn’t work!), and his knowledge of labour law was utilised by several other Eastern Cape municipalities in complex disciplinary cases. He currently runs a labour law consultancy, the Right to Fair Labour Practices Centre, in Queenstown.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zandisile Maliti
• Release date: Oct 5, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005511029

Book preview

FACTION FIGHT:

DEBERHA AND MANXADANXADA’S IMPACT ON AN EASTERN CAPE MUNICIPALITY

Zandisile Maliti

Copyright © 2020 Zandisile Maliti

Published by Zandisile Maliti Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Zandisile Maliti using Reach Publishers’ services,

Edited by Caroline Webb for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Website: www.reachpublishers.org

E-mail: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Introduction

2. An Encounter with Deberha

3. An Encounter with Manxadanxada

4. Irregularities in Filling the Municipal Manager Position

5. Unreasonable Decisions of SALGBC Commissioners (Part 1)

6. Unreasonable Decisions of SALGBC Commissioners (part 2)

7. Irregularities in Filling Senior Management Positions

8. Factions’ Effect on Samwu Affairs and Municipal Discipline

9. The Role of Corruption in the Deberha – Manxadanxada Battle

10. Conclusion

Preface

This book exposes the impact that the warring factions in the Eastern Cape Province of the African National Congress (ANC) have had on the administration of local municipalities. This is demonstrated by a real experience in which the author encountered ANC factions, known as Deberha and Manxadanxada, when he was working as the Human Resources Manager in the Intsika Yethu Local Municipality.

While interventions by the ANC national leadership and the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) that are aimed at fixing municipalities are to be applauded and encouraged, any solution that does not include addressing factionalism – which in all probability seems to be driven by corruption – is building upon shaky ground.

Towards and post the 3 August 2016 local government elections, the bone of contention between Deberha and Manxadanxada in their quest to capture municipalities revolved around the choice of political office bearers and senior management to be appointed in the municipalities. It is within this context that events mentioned in this book took place.

The reason for the author exposing the impact of Deberha and Manxadanxada on the municipality is to assist the authorities in better understanding that their intervention plans should be informed by correct diagnosis. The challenge of Eastern Cape municipalities is the encroachment of Deberha and Manxadanxada, whereby these factions have made it their business to influence the appointment of senior managers who would best serve their interest of self-enrichment. In this process of encroachment, these factions are regrettably aided by COGTA and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), amongst others.

In addition to exposing events in this book for the attention of authorities, the author also hopes to inspire active citizenry in local government in order to disturb the current state of affairs in which Deberha and Manxadanxada’s cronyism and patronage defines Eastern Cape municipalities.

Introduction

Deberha and Manxadanxada are two warring factions of the ANC that are based in the Eastern Cape. On 1 October 2017, during the governing party’s 8th provincial conference, South Africa saw these factions physically fighting over the election of leadership. The stakes were very high, in that both factions understood that to be elected in the ANC conference meant access to state power and, consequently, access to state resources.

Prior and post the 3 August 2016 local government elections, the fight between these factions over mayoral positions and appointment of municipal senior managers affected a number of employees negatively, including the author.

Notably, the fight is not ideological. Neither of these factions can be identified by a particular political ideology. In order to identify the cause of this fight, an inference can be drawn from the outcomes of the 27–30 September 2019 ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting. According to the NEC, it seems as if the governing party’s thinking is that fights in municipalities are informed by a desire to have control over supply chain processes. The reason I say this is that the NEC resolved to instruct its municipal speakers, mayors and chief whips not to be involved in supply chain processes.

As section 117 of the Local Government Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 bars participation of councillors in supply chain management processes, probably when the NEC took this decision, it might have believed that the participation of councillors is through municipal employees who are members of bid evaluation and adjudication committees. It is within this context that Deberha and Manxadanxada are fighting about appointments of senior managers of municipalities.

The acknowledgement of the NEC regarding corruption by some of its deployees should have been mitigated had South African leadership paid more attention to the caution of former president Thabo Mbeki, when he said (while still deputy president of SA and president of the ANC):

The time has come to call and impose a halt to the abuse of freedom in the name of entitlement, said to rise naturally from our having been the victims of apartheid, especially by those elements among the black elite which have a voice, precisely because they are better off. Clearly, now, these hijack the sacrifices which millions of ordinary people made to liberate our country for noble purposes, in order to satisfy insatiable and morally unbound greed and personal thirst for wealth and individual comfort, regardless of the cost to our society.

If some politicians encroach on supply chain management processes, as implied by the NEC, and are greedy – as stated by the former president and a number of institutions – the fighting between Deberha and Manxadanxada over appointments of local government senior management should be understood within this context. Regrettably, this situation has resulted in violation of employment law and employees’ rights, such as in the case of those who would have been appointed or promoted had recruitment processes not been informed by corrupt supply chain management interests.

Motivated by greed, these factions have ill-treated some employees, including the author. Regrettably, stakeholders that should have assisted in deterring these violations of employment rights and perpetuation of cronyism and patronage have been accomplices or derelict in their duty. These bodies include COGTA, SALGA, South African Local Government Bargaining Council (the SALGBC) commissioners, South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) and the HAWKS or National Prosecuting Authority (the NPA).

Deberha

Deberha seems to be the home village of the current Eastern Cape Premier and Chairperson of the ANC, Mr Oscar Mabuyane. The faction that supported his candidacy for election in the ANC 8th provincial conference is known by this name. Also, it is public knowledge that Deberha was aligned to CR17 (Cyril Ramaphosa’s campaign to be elected ANC president, and therefore President of South Africa).

Close to and post the 8th provincial conference, the majority of Manxadanxada councillors in the municipality, including the Speaker (Councillor Kanyiswa Mdleleni), defected to Deberha. Later, Deberha split into two sub-factions, although there was no difference in their support for provincial Deberha and CR17 candidates. It was alleged that the cause of the split had to do with a misunderstanding regarding utilisation of Deberha and/or CR17 campaign funds.

For the purposes of this book, the faction that had Deberha councillors whilst the balance of forces favoured Manxadanxada is referred to as Deberha A. The faction that combined with councillors who defected from Manxadanxada is referred to as Deberha B.

Manxadanxada

This name, which means ‘we are busy’, is derived from a radio advert that featured former ANC Eastern Cape Chairperson and Eastern Cape Premier, Mr Phumulo Masualle. The advert portrayed the government under his leadership as being busy with delivery of services, and in particular activities of war rooms.

Since this advert coincided with the period leading up to the 8th provincial conference, it was irritating to those who did not support his re-election as provincial chairperson. The advert was seen as promoting him, resulting in the naming of a faction that supported his re-election.

Manxadanxada is aligned to NDZ – the campaign of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to become ANC president and consequently president of the country.

Factions’ mode of operation

These factions identify people who are to be appointed in senior management positions before the job adverts are crafted. The rationale is to ensure that undesirable prospective candidates are eliminated and those that are desirable are accommodated.

In practice, the ANC Chief Whip is supplied with a ‘master list’ of candidates in order to supply the regional officials of the ANC. Then, the ANC municipal caucus is instructed regarding who is to be appointed. Recruitment processes serve as a mere formality. This is against the spirit and the letter of sections 54A (4) (a) and 56 (3) (a) of the LGMSA, which promoted an open recruitment process, to the extent of requiring national adverts in order to attract a pool of candidates. Above all other pieces of legislation, the above practice is in violation of section 195 (1) (i) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 which requires employment practices that are based on ability, objectivity and fairness.

Each faction wants appointments of proxies who will be loyal to them. On one occasion, Ms Namhla Toni, who is the wife of the ANC Chief Whip and a senior accountant in the expenditure division of the municipality, informed me that when the Chief Financial Officer, Lucky Madikizela, was appointed, Manxadanxada did not know that they had appointed a Deberha person. She said the faction only realised when it was too late to reverse the decision. She revealed that Mr Madikizela is the current ANC Provincial Treasurer’s younger brother, who was still a Deberha candidate during the appointment of his brother.

This assertion was confirmed by Councillor Azipheli Nkota when she informed me that the person who influenced the appointment of the CFO was the Mayor. At this time, the Mayor was in the process of convening a reconciliatory meeting between the Municipal Manager and the CFO as there were lots of misunderstandings between them.

In order for these factions to achieve their interests, they have to some extent lobbied stakeholders or relied on their inaction. These stakeholders, as mentioned before, include COGTA, SALGA, SALGBC commissioners, SAMWU and law enforcement agencies.

The Municipality

The Intsika Yethu Local Municipality I am discussing in this book is situated in the Eastern Cape within the Chris Hani District Municipality. It has 21 wards and two towns, Cofimvaba and Tsomo. It has a population of about 152 159, with 35 councillors from the ANC, 3 EFF, 2 UDM, 1 DA and 1 PAC.

Throughout the history of the municipality, ANC factions have managed their differences. There has been no period that brought instability like the period leading to and post the 3 August 2016 local government elections. This period was characterised by the advent of Deberha and Manxadanxada.

02

An Encounter with Deberha

I was initially not aware of the nature of divisions in the province because of my political inactivity. The first interaction happened when Deberha sent Ms Toni to speak to me. She caught me by surprise. Had I known that she was sent by a political faction, I would have told her not to talk about such things again to me.

In hindsight, I should have given a similar response as that of Jesus Christ, when he said: "Get behind me, Satan! You are an offence to me, for