By Moipone Malefane
Three provincial borders - Gauteng, North West and Mpumalanga - will be redrawn within the next 18 months.
This follows a resolution at the African National Congress' Gauteng conference in Sandton on Sunday that municipalities in the three provinces would have to change in order to streamline service delivery.
In terms of the resolution, Gauteng will take over areas like Winterveld, Mabopane, Hammanskraal and Ga-Rankuwa, which are part of the Tshwane Metro but fall under North West, and hand over Bekkersdal and Westonaria to North West.
Kungwini (formerly Bronkhorstspruit) will be incorporated into Mpumalanga.
The resolution comes at a time when residents of Kungwini are fighting the party's move to incorporate them into Mpumalanga.
Last week, seven men were arrested, a policeman was injured and three police cars were damaged when thousands of residents from Zithobile, Rethabiseng and Ekangala marched to the Bronkhorstspruit magistrate's court chanting anti-Mpumalanga and pro-Gauteng slogans as part of their protest.
And on Sunday evening the Kungwini Residents' Association, which has accused the ANC of not consulting residents before making a decision, again swore to vehemently oppose the demarcation.
Spokesperson Ngadi Mpye told The Star that if the ANC was serious about pushing back the frontiers of poverty, it would not consider moving their municipality to Mpumalanga.
"Our municipality in the ANC's records has been identified as the worst struggling municipality, and now they want to move us to a poor province."
"Gauteng has projects that benefit the poor, (but) what will happen to us? We will continue to oppose the move," Mpye said.
ANC provincial chairperson and Gauteng Premier Mbhazima Shilowa said the demarcation was being discussed internally by the party, which had taken a decision that the municipalities should be moved into other provinces.
He said his provincial executive council, together with the ANC from the other two affected provinces, should continue to meet to finalise the process of integration before talking to communities.
"We all need to explain to the membership and communities in the affected areas that the changes are not aimed at getting rid of anyone but are more about consolidation of municipalities to ensure effective and efficient service delivery."
Shilowa said some residents had already expressed opposition to the decision, but "we as their leaders will go to them and explain why the move is important".
Consultation was likely to start early in 2005.
Shilowa admitted there were concerns that Mpumalanga would not be able to afford either the development already planned and budgeted for within the Gauteng legislature or services Gauteng currently provided, but not provided by other provinces.
He said the process might take 12 to 18 months, which meant the residents could still vote under their current provinces in the 2005 local government elections.
ANC Gauteng secretary David Makhura said the party was aware of people's concerns. "Their perceptions and their fears are very valid, and that is why we must engage with them."
Makhura added that nothing could be done to help those who objected to the rezoning for "sentimental" reasons, for example because they had lived in a particular province for a long time.
The provincial Democratic Alliance (DA) said some of the municipalities were struggling with service delivery and it would be a good thing if the proposed moves benefited people's daily lives.
"However, the ANC also should allow the people to make a decision. A referendum should be held and the people should decide whether their daily lives will be affected for better or worse," said DA spokesperson on local government Paul Willemburg.
In his address, Shilowa lashed out at electricity parastatal Eskom's failure to provide residents, especially those from disadvantaged areas, with basic free electricity.
"The ANC manifesto in 2000 for local government committed to basic free electricity for communities, but the process is taking long.
"We are the government, Eskom is state-owned, and government at national level should order them to fulfil the promise. We want action."
Shilowa was re-elected as chairperson, Angie Motshekga as his deputy, Makhura as provincial secretary, Mandla Nkomfe as deputy secretary and Lindiwe Maseko as treasurer.