Turning Enoch Mgijima Around Needs Basic Management, Says Businessman In City Hall Pitch

Komani businessman Ken Clark believes turning the troubled Enoch Mgijima Municipality around would be a walk in the park.

Clark, a respected businessman who founded Twizza and Crickley Dairy has put his name in the hat as a mayoral candidate for the Enoch Migijima Local Municipality. His name was put forward by the Independents, who are contesting power in the Komani-based local council.

Having run successful businesses for years, and with a group of other professionals, Clark told The Coastal in a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday, that corruption, theft, nepotism had contributed to poor service delivery. Enoch Mgijima residents previously protested poor service delivery, demanding that council be dissolved, while the municipality had for years been placed under administration.

Clark believes turning the municipality around would not be complicated. “This is not a difficult problem to solve; it is basic management. I don’t believe that politicians are focussing on the right things. For them power is about themselves and not about the people," he said.

“Let’s be honest, part of the problem or major part of the problem is that they have not put competent people to run the municipality. If you want to understand what happens in electricity and water affairs you must be an engineer. We have denuded the municipality of all our expertise; we don’t have that capability within the municipality. Zero maintenance is planned in this municipality. We react to situations as and when they arise,” Clark said.

This is not the first time that Clark is running for the mayorship. He contested in 2021 but failed to garner enough votes. He hopes this time will be different. “I believe the time is right because everybody is so sick and tired of the ANC and their corruption, nepotism and stealing. I believe they [voters] are ready to give someone else a chance to try and get things to work," argued `Clark.

“The municipality is the simplest business in the world. The rules are given to you in the constitution. You get told exactly what you need to do. You don’t have to think too hard about it. All you have to do is apply your mind to doing things right, all you have to do is execute on your responsibilities,” he said.

Clark blasted the ANC, accusing it of “destroying the wealth”.

“What do I mean by that? If you look at the price of a house five years ago and what you could get for it now, I want to say every single household or every single homeowner in this town has lost anything between R500 000 and R2 million on the value of their property. That gap, whatever that gap is, is wealth destruction,” he said.

This, he said, was the direct result of the municipality’s failure to carry out its functions properly.

However, he believes the situation can still be turned around despite challenges. If the municipality were to improve service delivery and ensure there is a reliable water supply and uninterrupted electricity supply, residents would pay their municipal bills.

This would increase the municipality’s revenue collection to around 95% instead of the current 53%. The Eskom debt, currently estimated at around R2billion, had to be serviced. “So that is a huge task, and it is a task that has been accomplished elsewhere. There is no reason why we can’t accomplish that here. The first thing you have to fix is service delivery.

“That can be done very quickly, within six months that should be possible,” he said but would not go into details, saying that would “create a political discussion”.

Although he would not go into details about his plans, he said Enoch Mgijima Municipality could be a “metro in the next 10 to 15 years”.

“I probably won’t be doing it, somebody else can but we need to start that turnaround point. I have got people on my party list that are businesspeople. They have a good reputation of what they have done in this community, and they are prepared to stand up and work towards getting this municipality right.

“So, we have got a vision, and we have got the people to execute that vision,” he said.

Clark said attracting investors thus creating jobs would be among his top priorities should he be elected as mayor.

“The private sector will bring jobs back into the area. We must make sure we stop chasing business away.”

Under his watch, wrongdoing would not go unpunished. Any evidence of maladministration would be handed to law enforcement agencies, while he focuses on improving service delivery.

“We need to get the municipality functioning properly, that is critical.

Clark, who has been a councillor since his failed mayoral bid in 2021, is open to the possibility of the Komani-based municipality being governed by a coalition after the November 4 local government elections. The question is who that coalition is going to be? Can they deliver what I am talking about? The electorate needs to give the coalition at least 55% so that we can govern confidently. If you can’t give me the power at the ballot, then I can’t help you. We are going to need fundamental change on the way we think about politics going forward.

“How do we serve the people? We almost need a culture change within our municipality where people say, ‘how can I contribute to make this municipality a success?’,” he said.

Clark recently sold both his businesses but is still running the Crickley Dairy business.