Raw sewage on potholed streets, piles of garbage on sidewalks and water and power shortages became routine in the South African municipality of Makana.<\/p>\n
Then something extraordinary happened that could change the face of local government politics.<\/p>\n
The High Court last month granted a civil rights group\u2019s application to have the southeastern municipality\u2019s council dissolved because it had failed to provide adequate services and properly manage its operations.<\/p>\n
Judge Igna Stretch ordered the Eastern Cape provincial government to appoint an administrator to run the district until fresh elections are held.<\/p>\n
The unprecedented 117-page decision\u00a0sent shock waves through the ruling African National Congress, which controls scores of other towns hobbled by corruption and mismanagement.<\/p>\n
While the judgment is being appealed, the genie is out of the bottle. Community groups in the Enoch Mgijima municipality\u00a0north of Makana\u00a0have filed their own lawsuit to disband the council and others may follow suit.<\/p>\n
\u201cDemocracy has been served,\u201d Ayanda Kota, chairman of the Unemployed People\u2019s Movement, which filed the Makana suit, said in an interview. \u201cThe ruling means people have the power to go to court and throw corrupt politicians out of office and elect competent ones.\u201d<\/p>\n
A succession of government reports has shown the mounting risk the 257 municipalities pose to the nation\u2019s finances.<\/p>\n
Just 18 got clean audits in the year through June 2018, according to the Auditor-General. Local authorities are collectively owed almost R170 billion\u00a0 ($11.3 billion) for rates and services, and their inability to collect it from residents who are unable or unwilling to pay means they struggle to settle their own bills.<\/p>\n
Finance Minister Tito Mboweni will reveal whether municipalities will get additional funding from the national government when he presents the budget on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Makana Mayor Mzukisi Mpahlwa, who took up his post a year ago, said the court ruling didn\u2019t take account of recent progress made in turning the district of 80,000 people around.<\/p>\n
About 90% of its debt is being collected, staff are paid regularly and water shortages caused by the worst drought in history are being addressed, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this judgment compels us to be dissolved, all the municipalities without exception would be dissolved,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cThis will create a very, very difficult situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brin Brody, the lawyer for the group that brought the suit and a 37-year resident of Makhanda \u2014\u00a0the district\u2019s main town and home to Rhodes University \u2014\u00a0said he sees no sign of improvement. His view is shared by the town\u2019s ratepayers and business forums, which backed the case.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis municipality has destroyed the economy of its own town through mismanagement and inefficiency,\u201d Brody said. \u201cThere is no money being spent on infrastructure. There is no management taking place.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stormwater drains go uncleared, livestock graze\u00a0on sidewalks and piped water is on average only available three or four days a week in Makhanda\u2019s suburbs. Property prices have more than halved over the past five years, according to real-estate agent Daphne Timm, who\u2019s worked in the town for the past 24 years.<\/p>\n
The neglect is even more acute in Joza on Makhanda\u2019s outskirts, where sewage flows from leaking pipes into yards and dirt streets. The township\u2019s predominantly black and unemployed residents can go for weeks without running water. A mound of trash festers next to a thoroughfare dubbed Pigsty Street by the locals, a monument to the collapse of garbage-collection services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe keep on asking them to solve our problems,\u201d said Apollo Phillip, a 49-year-old\u00a0community activist who\u2019s lived in the area for two decades. \u201cThey keep on making promises but nothing happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ten Joza residents have filed a separate lawsuit aimed at forcing the municipality to tackle the sewage spills. That case, which is being handled by the non-profit Legal Resources Centre, has yet to go to court.<\/p>\n
The upsurge in activism in Makana hasn\u2019t translated into immediate\u00a0political change. The ANC retained control of the municipality in a 2016 vote and has won subsequent by-elections \u2014\u00a0loyalty it\u2019s engendered by disbursing welfare grants, jobs and housing.<\/p>\n
While the main opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters, have struggled to capitalize on the widespread discontent, the ANC may face opposition from a new movement that\u2019s being set up by residents to contest future elections. The next vote is due in 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to put in place folk who are not going to be responsible to a political master,\u201d said Dittma Eichhoff, a dentist who\u2019s lived in Makhanda for almost 40 years and is helping coordinate the new structure. \u201cThis is about citizens sorting out a town.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Cyril Ramaphosa admits that municipalities aren\u2019t being adequately managed and has given the job of overhauling how they are run to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, his co-operative governance minister. Planned reforms include appointing experts in all the nation\u2019s 44\u00a0districts to advise and oversee several towns, and ensuring officials are appointed on merit.<\/p>\n
Pedro Tabensky, director of the Allan Gray Centre for Leadership Ethics at Rhodes University, sees Makhanda\u2019s experience serving as a possible catalyst for change elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a model for the rest of the country, a new way of doing democracy that cuts across class and race and ideology,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think this was possible. If we succeed here, who knows what is going to happen?\u201d<\/p>\n