The Democratic Alliance will reject the proposal for the exclusion of Harrismith town and surrounding farms from Maluti-a-Phofung municipality, and the inclusion of the town into Phumelela municipality, as published in the Daily Sun on 28 March. This proposal in no way fulfils the demands from the community for the entire Greater Harrismith area to remain intact and to form its own municipality.
In March 2022, the DA made a comprehensive submission to the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) stating our proposal that all the wards in the Greater Harrismith area, which previously constituted the Greater Harrismith Transitional Local Council, and the former Kestell Transitional Local Council, be re-constituted as an independent municipality.
The proposal published now by the MDB, indicates the intention to separate a portion of the Harrismith town, farms and Intabazwe, from Maluti-a-Phofung and include it into Phumelela municipality. This is an outrageous perversion of the wishes of the entire community. The DA, together with all other stakeholders, made similar submissions asking that the Greater Harrismith be de-linked from Maluti-a-Phofung. The MDB proposal would split the Harrismith Magisterial District, the Harrismith Policing area, and the Harrismith District Farmers Union, while also separating Harrismith from its own industrial areas.
This is contrary to all criteria in the Demarcation Act which should demarcate municipalities, into viable, sustainable, integrated and cohesive units.
After the four Transitional Local Councils had been established in Greater Harrismith, Kestell, Phuthaditjhaba and Rural Qwa Qwa, in preparation for the first Local Government elections in 2001, a sudden and controversial decision was taken shortly before the election to throw these four local councils together, thereby creating a vast municipality with no hope of being viable or financially sustainable. The past twenty two years have proven that decision to have been irrational and ill-conceived, and the result is the current bankrupt and ungovernable Maluti-a-Phofung, the worst municipality in the country.
The submissions from all sectors of society for that irrational decision to be reversed, and the situation rectified, has clearly fallen on deaf ears. The DA and the community will not allow this preposterous proposal to be implemented and will continue to demand that the Greater Harrismith area remain intact, including at least the current wards 1, 4, 5, 6 and 22. Nothing less will be accepted.
The DA will submit its rejection of the current proposal before the cut-off date of 27 April. We look forward to engaging the MDB further on finding an acceptable solution to the act of re-determining the boundaries of Maluti-a-Phofung.