Batho Pele Movement (BPM) leader Veliswa Mvenya is gunning for more seats in two Eastern Cape municipalities after the November local government elections.
Mvenya is a seasoned politician, having served as former DA and African Transformation Movement (ATM) member of the Bhisho legislature.
Less than six months after its formation, the BPM managed to win a seat in both the Mnquma and Mbhashe municipality councils in the November 2021 local elections.
Mvenya is confident that come November 4, the BPM will increase its presence in both councils.
She was speaking to the Dispatch days after she was sworn in as the BPM’s new proportional representative councillor at the Mnquma municipality.
Mvenya founded the BPM in June 2021, after leaving the ATM in a huff earlier that year, claiming the party led by senior clergyman Prof Caesar Nongqunga, which had close ties to former ANC president Jacob Zuma, was being taken over by ANC and church politics.
Mvenya replaces former Mnquma mayor Mbulelo Ntenjwa as the party’s sole BPM councillor in the Butterworth-based council.
Ntenjwa, a former ANC leader and COPE MP who had been a BPM councillor for little less than a year, resigned from council and the movement recently.
Ntenjwa, who could not be reached for comment on Friday, is now believed to have aligned himself with the PAC in the area.
Mvenya said she had created the BPM with the goal of improving service delivery and enforcing the eight Batho Pele principles to prioritise citizens.
“It was at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2021 when in June we launched the movement.
“However, a few months later, without even having campaigned much, we managed to get two seats at the Mnquma and Mbhashe councils.
“Now, with so much time on our hands, and with our movement having established itself in many communities, I am confident that we will increase our seats at both Mnquma and Mbhashe, the two municipalities we will put our main focus on during the upcoming local government elections.
“We have now built our brand, and we are certain that we will have a much bigger representation in both these two councils come the November 4 elections.
“In those councils, we will introduce our system of not focusing on politics, but service delivery for our communities.
“To us it is all about service delivery and nothing else, not politics, not too much lip service, but service delivery as the Batho Pele principles will be our bible,” Mvenya said.
“Our people’s lives will not be improved by mere politics, but by service delivery, which is our main focus in our quest to make the lives of our people better.”
Mnquma municipal spokesperson Loyiso Mpalantshane confirmed that Mvenya was sworn into council by speaker Monica Qaba on July 14, after Ntenjwa’s resignation as a PR councillor.
Mvenya said enforcing strict oversight and accountability would be her main focus as a councillor.
“It will not be nice in that council. Mnquma will never be the same in terms of oversight and accountability.
“Our role as an opposition party will not just be to criticise, but to do so constructively.
“Whenever I get a chance, I will remind all councillors, even those from the ruling ANC, that they, too, are in council to enforce accountability from officials and to conduct proper oversight.
“I will tell them that if they are bothered by oversight, they are not supposed to be in council representing our communities.
“This is because without proper oversight and accountability, decent service delivery will never come for our communities,” she said.
In 2000, Mvenya was a DA councillor in the Amathole District Municipality before she graduated to the Bhisho legislature in 2004.
In 2018, she left the DA and returned to the legislature the next year as an ATM MPL, before being appointed chair of the institution’s standing committee on public accounts.
Daily Dispatch
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