Infighting in Nelson Mandela Bay metro detracts from delivery

The continuous political squabbles among political parties in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro in the Eastern Cape has directly affected service delivery.

Not a single house was built in the last term and its human settlements budget was returned to National Treasury.

This was revealed by Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Thembi Nkadimeng who expressed concern that the poor who were desperate for housing were disadvantaged in the process.

The minister, addressing an ANC national executive committee media briefing in Boksburg yesterday, cited various instances when Nelson Mandela Bay councillors had spent much time and energy on motions of no-confidences against the incumbent mayors instead of service delivery.

She said service delivery should be a priority over political squabbles. “The metro had to return an estimated R500 million during the last term to the fiscus.

They did not build a single house, not one house,” Nkadimeng said. The regular infighting in the council destabilised the municipality causing it to lag behind in housing delivery in particular.

The metro has had between 10 and 15 mayors since the first local government elections in 1995.

The ANC planned to set a threshold for party representation in council to about 1% minimum which would help to reduce the parties’ numbers in council.

There appeared to be consensus among some major parties on the issue.

The current system allowed for too many parties to be represented and that adversely affected the establishment of coalition governments.

As required by law, if a municipality failed to spend its allocation, the money should be re-allocated to another municipality or national or provincial government departments.

Capacity within some municipalities resulting from lack of necessary financial skills was also a factor in this.

Nkadimeng, a former president of the South African Local Government Association and ex-mayor of Polokwane local municipality in Limpopo, replaced Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who was moved to the Youth and People with Disabilities portfolio.

Nkadimeng described underspending in the municipalities as a “perennial problem” and stressed that municipalities collectively had lost close to R1 billion which had to go back to National Treasury.

“The funds were not spent according to plan,” she said. A planning hub was planned with 92 experts to assist the municipalities to implement and oversee projects for the new financial year beginning 1 July.

The ANC had adopted an accountability framework in line with the requirement by the Auditor-General that all state structures should account for every rand they were allocated.

This included enhancing and infusing accountability into all policies at every government level.

Section 214(1) of the Constitution requires that nationally raised revenue be divided equitably between national government, the nine provinces and 257 municipalities in terms of the Division of Revenue Act.