The ANC has capitulated to threats by the African Independent Congress (AIC) that it will withdraw from its governing coalition with the party in Ekurhuleni and Rustenburg if Matatiele municipality is not reincorporated with KwaZulu-Natal.
Yesterday, the AIC and the ANC signed a memorandum of understanding to start the process of putting in motion the moving of Matatiele from the Eastern Cape to KZN.
The AIC helped the ANC retain the Ekurhuleni and Rustenburg municipalities following last year’s hotly contested municipal elections.
The ANC lost control of Tshwane, the City of Joburg, Umkhanyakude District Municipality and Nelson Mandela Bay in the elections.
Earlier this year, it emerged that the AIC wanted to pull out of the coalition if the ANC did not deliver on its promise to move the municipality.
“The ANC will, by the beginning of next month, put the motion in the National Assembly. To complete the incorporation, legislation has to be changed. We hope that the process will be wrapped up by the end of the year,” the memorandum said.
AIC spokesperson Aubrey Mhlongo said they did not expect a lot of resistance from other parties in Parliament.
“We can’t speculate on that, but the other parties also have members in Matatiele who want to go back to KZN. ‘They have a mandate from them, and they have to fulfil that.”
If the motion does not pass in Parliament, the party would go back to the drawing board.
“We will not pull out of the coalition because the ANC would have done the best to keep their end of the promise.”
Other than incorporating Matatiele into KwaZulu-Natal, the two parties have also agreed that an agricultural college be opened in the area and that all provincial rural roads, especially those connecting the area to Lesotho, be tarred.