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The town of Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, which is part of the Makana Local Municipality, is a rather quaint place.
It is a pretty little town with lots of churches, lots of elite schools, and lots and lots of donkeys.
Donkeys are the Ubers in this historic town and, at the start or end of the tertiary term, they can be seen carting Rhodes University students to or from transport nodes.
These beasts of burden are such a part of the town’s fabric that it is completely normal to see them grazing on sidewalks in the centre of the town or just wandering along the street in search of the next green spot.
In 2018, the Grahamstown Residents’ Association raised concerns about donkeys being “frequently maimed and killed in road accidents in Makhanda. It is traumatic for police to deal with injured motorists and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has to deal with the injured donkeys, which often have to be put down.”
It added that these “endearing” animals roam the town, “ripping open rubbish bags and emptying bins in search of nutrition, something that exposes donkeys to further danger”.
While donkeys form an integral part of the town’s transport and economic system, their evolution into a nuisance element is a result of the collapse in governance.
They are a bizarre symptom of the failure to enforce even the basic by-laws by the dysfunctional Makana municipality.
The less bizarre – but much more devastating – symptoms of this malaise are empty coffers; water shortages; uncontrolled sewage spills; and non-collection of rubbish.
The fall of the town was as fast and destructive as an avalanche.
In less than a decade, Makhanda went from being a typical South African small – grossly unequal but functional – town to being totally dysfunctional, with the poor bearing the brunt of deteriorating services.
Placed under administration in 2014 and co-run by an administrator and the municipal authorities, Makana was supposed to adhere to a financial recovery plan.
But incompetence and greed and Byzantine ANC politics ensured that the well-laid plan was as effective as a eunuch in a brothel.
The town went from bad to worse and the pain was multiplied.
Thanks to a fightback campaign by residents, who united across class and race, Makana achieved another unique feature last week – it became the first council to be dissolved by a court for breaching the Constitution by “failing to promote a healthy and sustainable environment for the community”.
Judge Igna Stretch ruled that, “in failing to ensure the provision of services to its community in a sustainable manner; in failing to promote a safe and healthy environment for its community; in failing to structure and manage its administration, budgeting and planning processes; in failing to give priority to the basic needs of its community; and in failing to promote the social and economic development of its community, it is inconsistent with the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa”.
The Constitution, Stretch said, “has empowered courts to be the ultimate referees on whether the Constitution or any other law has been breached”.
Ruling on the case in this manner and compelling the provincial government to intervene on behalf of the people was therefore not judicial overreach.
“If it is trespass at all, it is one that the Constitution itself allows,” she said.
So now the provincial government is compelled to take over the recovery plan and make sure that people are not deprived of their basic constitutional rights by the local politicians and bureaucrats.
Premier Oscar Mabuyane’s office, the municipality and the local ANC region have already said they were considering an appeal, which is most likely going to be premised on an argument of overreach.
The view from that side is that it sets a bad precedent. The implementation of the order will be suspended until the appeal decision is made.
The provincial and local structures will most likely be supported by the national counterparts at government and party level in their decision to appeal.
There are few things that the ANC detests more than jurists telling it that this is a constitutional democracy and the founding document confers undefiable duties and responsibilities on those in power.
The Unemployed People’s Movement, the civic association that took the matter to court, expressed dismay at this.
Its chairperson, local activist Ayanda Kota, said that it would be an “indictment on the part of the government to oppose the will of the people. It would indeed be a dark moment for our city and our country.”
Indeed it would, as it would amount to the provincial government telling the residents that it does not want to dig them out of the hole they are in.
By suspending the implementation of the order and even spending money on an appeal, they are prolonging the suffering, because one day lost in the recovery is a disaster.
This judgment is important not only for the people of Makhanda and the Makana municipality, it is a potentially important weapon in the hands of other communities who are being denied their rights to a decent life by their local authorities.
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