Mabuza called Municipal disclaimers to resign

All 21 municipal managers from the province have committed themselves not to get the disclaimers and that they should be released from duty with immediate effect.

Municipal managers submitted the letters on Wednesday during a special premier’s co-ordinating forum which took place in Nelspruit which was also attended by representatives from the office of the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs.

The managers committed themselves that they would improve their work and in the event they get the disclaimers, they voluntary allow the authorities to release them from duty with immediate effect.

Early this year, Premier David Mabuza called on municipal managers with disclaimers to freely resign from their positions. Only one municipal manager resigned.

The commitment letters already have the signatures of the municipal managers but have no dates. The dates would only be filled in by the authorities once the municipal manager has received a disclaimer.

This is part of Mabuza’s effort of ensuring that all spheres of the provincial government in Mpumalanga achieve the desired clean audit in 2014 and that municipalities should not get the disclaimers from the audit opinion of the Auditor-General.

Disclaimers simply means that public funds had been utilised by the institutions of government, however there is no accountability. It further means that although public funds had been utilised, services were not delivered for the people.

The premier’s co-ordinating forum is attended by all the mayors, members of the executive committee, municipal managers and heads of the departments from the provincial departments.

It serves to assess implementation of business plans and expenditure on a monthly basis. It further advises the municipalities on the type of intervention they require from the provincial government. It also gives preliminary reports on their monthly assessment by the Auditor-General.

Wednesday’s meeting focused mainly on progress with regards to the provision of water, sanitation and other basic services such as housing by the municipalities. Mabuza publicly announced this year that all citizens of Mpumalanga will have access to clean drinking water in February 2014.

“I want to stress that the deadline still stands. By February next year, we must go back to the community and tell them that we now have water. We must go there and celebrate with our people and say what took us so long, we have now finally conquered it,” said Mabuza.