We the undersigned parents, youth and students of the Northern Cape have been sidelined in the affairs of the province, misled and even used by political office bearers particularly ANC leaders in both the legislature and local municipality. We remain unemployed, live in horrible conditions, see our friends and family members resort to drug abuse because the economic status quo does not benefit us. We saw billions being given out to prominent people close to the presidency, premier(s) and even mayors through tenders while we had nothing but R350`s and food parcels that were even sold by councillors and others who are close to ANC leaders.

This comes after the people of the province/ city(Sol Plaatjie) demanded that the Former Mayor of Sol Plaatjie municipality known as Mangaiso Matika to resign from his office because he was protecting the Municipality Manager and the Chief Financial Officer when they intended increasing electricity prices without consulting the residents of the above mentioned city. However, the Department of Cooperative governance took a resolution to investigate the affairs of the municipality and they found that the city had over 105 cases of corruption and/ or misuse of state funds in 2 years since the commencement of their term.

Nonetheless, when Dr. Zamani Saul became the premier of the province made promises to us, about dealing with the issue of the corruption that transpired at the Sol Plaatjie Municipality, province and at national level, but has done nothing in resolving the matter nor did his executive members make the 106 report public. This remains relevant in the city and province at large because it has shown us that the ANC led government has no intention of dealing with corruption, fraud nor misuse of public resources because the Municipality Manager and CFO are still being remunerated by the state while they are dismissed and Mangaliso Matika was deployed to a higher position(promoted) i.e he is currently the Deputy Speaker of the Northern Cape provincial legislature. This also has a negative impact on the future of our province and country at large because corrupt politicians are not punished but are rather promoted. This will cause the future generations to also engage in such immoral acts expecting to go unpunished. Subsequently, we demand that Mangaliso Matika and Zamani Saul resign, and if they fail we request the MPL`s of NC legislature to remove them from their positions as stated in section 141 and 130(3) of the South African constitution respectively.

We demand Zamani Saul to resign or be removed because he has violated section 136(2) c of the constitution when he interfered with tender processes which resulted in Mrs Shush being given a tender of PPE`s(Personal Protective Equipment), by him disagreeing with the articles written we demand that he step`s aside until the matter is investigated by a chapter 9 institution i.e. the office of the Public Protector, and if the information is incorrect he should be reinstated. We call for this because we are of a view that punishing a politician will decrease the number of corruption, fraud and even other illegal cases.

Moreover, we demand that the government stop paying the salaries of Akawary Gulam and Lydia Sethloko because they are a liability to the Municipality and no longer assets.

In addition to this we request that the Provincial government take over some of the duties of all municipalities in the province, the services that we demand to be taken over by the Provincial government are:

• Distribution of electricity
• Creating employment opportunities for the youth by doing away with the tender system
  • We the people of the Northern Cape hereby demand that the provincial government of the above mentioned province take over the duty of the municipalities to provide electricity to the communities based in and around the province, this comes after the Sol Plaatjie municipality was considered to be the municipality that has the highest electricity prices which is a result of the municipality`s high mark-up. This has a direct effect on the economic standard of the people and province at large because it increases the expenditure of households on electricity and decreases the mount of money which would have been spent on other essential goods. Consequently, we request that the intervene in the affairs of the municipality as stated in section 139(b i, ii) of the constitution. However, we do note that the mark-up price on electricity is charged by the municipalities as an attempt to raise revenue as stipulated in section 4(c) of the municipality systems act 32 of 2000. We thus disagree with the high cost of electricity and demand that the provincial government allow Eskom to distribute electricity to us directly with “NO” middleman who will be motivated by profit.
  • However, it goes without saying that the economy of the city and province at large is not conducive because the city and provincial government has prioritized individuals (juristic and natural) over the entire community or residents of the province. This is seen in how the government has been wasting millions and even billions of rand`s on a system known as the tender system, we thus demand that the provincial government do away with the tender system and address the triple challenges we face(poverty, unemployment and economic inequality directly). We demand that this be done in accordance with section 76 (a) of the municipality systems act of (i,ii,iii) which gives the government the authority to render services without the need of a middleman. This will consequently reduce costs related to the administration of the Northern Cape municipalities and will also replace the money that will be removed by Eskom providing us electricity directly.

The above will thus allow the municipality to hire more people whether it be permanent or temporarily with high salaries because service providers would be no more and the profit`s which were meant for them would be used to either employ more staff members or increase their salaries.

We demand that these duties be taken over by the Provincial government because the municipalities have failed to implement the demands of their respective communities as they seek to make sure that they engage in corruption as receivers and/or givers.

In conclusion, we demnd that the proncial governmant makes public the 106 report that was issued by the Department of coorporative governance which realtes to the investigation of corruption and state resource misuse at the Sol Plaatjie municipality during the term of Mr. Mangaliso Matika.

We thus give the Premier and speaker of the Provincial legislature 20 days to respond to our demands as outlined in this petition and failure to do so we will lead to mass protests with no public violence.