Paperwork Powerplays: Contestation in Mogalakwena Municipality

The research examines the role of 'paperwork powerplays' in the Mogalakwena Local Municipality, where opposing political factions used official reports, agendas, and forensic audits to legitimise their actions and delegitimise rivals. It highlights how the language of 'good governance' and the perceived objectivity of auditing firms like KPMG were weaponised to frame complex political feuds as binary struggles between integrity and corruption. The study concludes that documents serve as critical resources for state power and calls for greater public access to state archives to ensure democratic accountability.

• Official documents in the Mogalakwena Local Municipality served as material anchors for political narratives, allowing actors to frame factional power struggles as matters of 'good governance' and 'bureaucratic neutrality'.
• The Municipal Manager, Willy Kekana, used official reports to transform personal and political rivalries into 'institutional truth', specifically using a 2010 report to recommend the suspension of Henry Thobejane by framing the dispute as a violation of administrative order.
• Political factions within the municipality engaged in a 'battle of paper', where the validity of resolutions often depended on the procedural correctness of documents, such as whether a report was included in a council agenda 24 hours in advance.
• Forensic reports, particularly those from KPMG, were treated as high-authority 'talismans' in anti-corruption politics, providing a 'scientific' veneer to political attacks despite the auditors' own caveats regarding the completeness and verification of their information.
• The struggle for control over documentary production extended to the physical and administrative control of the Council secretariat and records division, including the padlocking of council chambers and the removal of original files by investigators.
• The author argues that the tendency of anti-corruption discourse to create binary 'hero-versus-villain' narratives obscures the complex political dynamics of state institutions and emphasizes the need for public access to state documents via the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA).

APA

Pearson, J. (2020). Paperwork Powerplays: Contestation in Mogalakwena Municipality. Public Affairs Research Institute. https://pari.org.za/paperwork-powerplays-contestation-limpopo-municipality/

Chicago

Pearson, Joel. Paperwork Powerplays: Contestation in Mogalakwena Municipality. Public Affairs Research Institute, 2020. https://pari.org.za/paperwork-powerplays-contestation-limpopo-municipality/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Pearson |first1=Joel |title=Paperwork Powerplays: Contestation in Mogalakwena Municipality |publisher=Public Affairs Research Institute |date=8 October 2020 |url=https://pari.org.za/paperwork-powerplays-contestation-limpopo-municipality/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{pearson2020paperwork, author = {Pearson, Joel}, title = {{Paperwork Powerplays: Contestation in Mogalakwena Municipality}}, institution = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2020}, month = oct, url = {https://pari.org.za/paperwork-powerplays-contestation-limpopo-municipality/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }