—was siphoned out of state coffers. Creaking ports and regular power cuts are thought to lower annual growth in sub-Saharan Africa’s second-largest economy by one percentage point a year.. In his latest move, on May 5th, he secured the suspension of his nemesis, Ace Magashule, as secretary-general of the ruling African National Congress , after his arrest last year on charges of fraud, corruption and money-laundering.
After apartheid ended in 1994, three areas merged to form Maluti-a-Phofung. The first, Harrismith, was a genteel town visited by Princess Elizabeth in 1947. The second was the farming area around the town of Kestell, named after a man who helped translate the Bible into Afrikaans. The third, and most populous, was the Sotho-speaking area of QwaQwa, one of ten ethnic “homelands” set up to divide and rule the black population.
Maluti-a-Phofung is far from unique. The Auditor-General, a watchdog, last year gave just 8% of municipalities clean audits, most of them run by the. In 67% of cases accounts were “not credible enough” to use. “Irregular” expenditure reached 32bn rand in 2018/19, up from 25bn in the previous financial year.
Other forms of citizen activism are visible as well. In December a court gave temporary control over sewage works in the Kgetlengrivier municipality to a residents’ association—a move that has inspired a similar group in Harrismith to try to take its municipality to court. Many ratepayers’ associations are withholding taxes in protest. “A sea change is under way at local government level,” argues David Everatt of the University of the Witwatersrand.
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