The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape says the Enoch Mgijima and Makana municipalities are the province's worst-run municipalities.
The DA's shadow MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Dr Vicky Knoetze and the provincial deputy chairperson Horatio Hendricks briefed the media on Monday on the findings of a seven-week tour the party embarked on.
The Rescue Eastern Cape tour comprised visits to 32 small towns and 11 municipalities in what the party said was a quest to engage communities on water supply, sewerage, roads and other infrastructure challenges they experience.
The 11 municipalities visited are Koukamma, Blue Crane Route, Raymond Mhlaba, Great Kei, Enoch Mgijima, Amahlathi, Makana, Walter Sisulu, Dr Beyers Naude, Inxuba Yethemba and Sundays River.
On why these municipalities were visited, Dr Knoetze said they tried to visit the municipalities in distress and the towns they did not visit during their previous election campaign.
She said what the tour revealed was that half of the district municipalities in the province were under administration, adding that the municipal debt owed to Eskom had ballooned – which Enoch Mgijima owed more than a billion rand – and that there was a general lack of basic service delivery in most of the towns.
"Critical infrastructure has either already collapsed or is on the verge of collapse,” she said.
She said the first thing the DA would do when addressing the issues faced by these municipalities is to abolish cadre deployment and establishing frequent oversight visits in the municipalities that need it most.
"We will also partner with the private sector and civil society in terms of a whole-of-society approach. There must be Public-Private Partnerships to enhance capacity and bridge some of the gaps that have been created."
Hendricks, who spoke more about his tenure as mayor of the Koukamma municipality, said people want a municipality that is relentless in improving the quality of life of its people.
"Municipalities are not doing preventative maintenance and that is one of the many reasons why everything in the province is broken,” Hendricks added.
