Johannesburg - The dream of the Rustenburg municipality, which was once the fastest growing city in the country outside the metros, becoming a special economic node hasn’t quite gone to script.
But the incumbent mayor of the platinum rich city in the North West, Mpho Khunou who is seeking re-election next month’s polls, scoffs at criticism of failure on his watch.
More than five years ago Rustenburg was earmarked to be a development zone with the fastest economic growth above the national average.
Yet the municipality which derived 75 percent of its wealth from platinum mining is in dire straits with aging infrastructure, water losses, unemployment and poor financial management.
It has not received a clean audit of its financial statements from the Auditor General in decades now.
The City has an irregular expenditure bill accumulated over years that now runs in to R3 billion and further compounding the council’s problems is a declining mining sector.
“Rustenburg was one of the fastest growing cities primarily due to platinum mining. We would have been much happier if it was one of the fastest growing cities when its economy was diversified,” said Khunou.
“We have been quite clear since 2011 that you cannot have a situation of being regarded as the fastest growing city but at the same time you’re vulnerable because of dependence of one sector of the economy.”
Khunou said the notion of the municipality becoming a specialist economic zone arose out of clear plan developed by his administration.
He said the municipality has been through difficult periods in the past years characterised by prolonged strikes in the platinum mines and the council emptying its reserves to finance infrastructure maintenance.
“We have got to be serious about diversification of the local economy so that we do not become vulnerable again,” he said. “Reserves are important because they provide some cushion during bad times and they did exactly that during the prolonged mining strike.
“We went through a period of five months in 2013/14 when most residents could not afford to pay their municipal accounts.”
Khunou said a lot of work has now been done to put the municipality in the trajectory for growth again.
The municipality has, he said, invested in infrastructure, purchased 100 hectares of land and created conducive conditions to attract investments.
“There has been phenomenal work that has been done in the townships, in our rural areas and in the CBD to transform Rustenburg,” he explained. “We have a clear plan to deal with diversification of economy, agriculture, tourism and industrialisation of the city.”
Whether this is enough to convince voters on August 3rd to re-elect Khunou and his party remains to be seen.
Many have accused the municipality of corruption, maladministration and poor leadership. Also critics believe the ANC in the North West is using the municipality as a cash cow for dispensing political patronage.
One the critics is a former ANC member Bosa Ledwaba, who now leads a new group of independent candidates named Forum for Service Delivery.
The forum will contest elections in five municipalities in the Bojanala district of North West which includes Rustenburg.
“Rustenburg is underperforming because its leadership under the mayor has it dysfunctional by plundering and looting its resources,” she told Independent Media.
“Corruption, theft and maladministration is the order of the day. Rustenburg is facing serous problems especially unemployment and inequality.”
The Star