ANC service delivery 'war room' faces tough questions

Political analyst Sandile Swana has criticised the African National Congress (ANC) for its newly announced 'war room' aimed at fixing failing municipalities, calling it ineffective.

He argued that the local government crisis in South Africa is too severe to be resolved in time for this year's elections.

Swana said the problems facing municipalities stem from more than a decade of neglected infrastructure, poor maintenance and unresolved Auditor-General findings dating back 15 years.

He added that political interference has obscured the real scale of the crisis.

"About 90% of our municipalities are either at risk, dysfunctional, or under financial distress. To fix those problems that have been created from 2009, especially until now, and fix them before November, is not going to happen.

"The ageing infrastructure that needs to be replaced, because some of the problems that you have, such as leaking water, leaking sewage all the time in our townships, towns and suburbs, are because of ageing infrastructure. The regular maintenance, flood maintenance and refurbishment have a backlog that has not been attended to.

"All that you can do really is to go back and start dealing with the backlog systematically over a 10-year window or 15-year window. That is all you can do. There's no war room that's going to solve anything. Cyril Ramaphosa had his own war room with Jacob Zuma to fix Eskom. They never fixed Eskom. These war rooms, I don't know how many war rooms Cyril has been in or that he started himself. So, this is a waste of time."

Swana emphasised that meaningful reform would require a long-term, systematic recovery plan, rather than election-driven initiatives aimed at quick results.

To listen to Swana in conversation with 702 and CapeTalk's Africa Melane, use the audio player below: