We can make it without the intervention of the administrator, AbaQulusi Mayor says
Below is the unaltered letter we received from mayor of AbaQulusi, Jerry Sibiya, in response to the decision made by Cogta MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube's decision to put
I have read the statement by the MEC: COGTA posted on the 4th of March 2019 and this is my response
Firstly this Municipality was led by the ANC in the previous term (2012/2016) therefore the current leadership which is led by the IFP inherited a dysfunctional institution both financially and administratively. there are numerous examples of how the mentioned term left this Municipality on its knees and literally living on hand to mouth basis because of the appointment of an administrator and 09 (nine) Acting Municipal Managers. These acting Municipal Managers were inexperienced, taking wrong financial decisions looting resources and left the Municipality grounded.
When the ANC led previous administration looted the coffers of the Municipality they compromised service delivery. The current administration with its visionary political and administrative leadership has tried to navigate through the troubled waters and brought all services to the people of Abaqulusi Municipality. Save for one ANC march which was for their launch of the electioneering projects, there has been no service delivery protest. Emondlo Community has never demonstrated against the Municipality as alleged by the MEC.
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The Municipal Manager as head of administration is handling all matters of appointment of staff as provided for in terms of Section 55 of the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000. Accordingly, the positions of directors were filled and we are gradually filling all vacancies. The issue of nepotism only surfaced through the memorandum of the said ANC march. For record purposes, Mrs SP Dlamini is an adult, a seasoned manager and has her own family. She did not need to get permission from the Speaker to apply for a position for which she qualified. She has worked at Abaqulusi Municipality for close to a decade long before Cllr Khumalo became the Speaker. She got a management position at Hlabisa Municipality and after serving a full term, she was interested in the Director Corporate Services post that was advertised at Abaqulusi. She was shortlisted based on her qualifications both academically and experience wise.
She was interviewed and became the best performing candidate. When the matter came before Council for a final decision, Cllr Khumalo made a written declaration as required by law. There was no objection from any political party present including the ANC. The decision to appoint her was unanimous and didn’t need a vote. The documentation was sent to COGTA to verify completeness and credibility, we received a written concurrence by the same MEC stating that the appointment of Mrs S.P Dlamini was in compliance with all rules and regulations.
The current political leadership and administration has to deal with a mammoth task of cleaning up the mess under the guidance of myself as a Mayor and the current Municipal Manager Mr B.E Ntanzi. In 2015 COGTA’s own back to basics assessment placed this Municipality at a category of dysfunctional. The financial management of the Municipality collapsed in 2015. The Municipality could not pay salaries and grant funding was used to pay for operational costs. The utilisation of grant funding to pay for operational costs happened under the leadership of the inexperienced acting Municipal Managers appointed by COGTA and the ANC led Council.
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The ESKOM debt was allowed to escalate by the same Acting Municipal Managers from COGTA under the same MEC. The Current Municipal Manager has had to negotiate payment plans with ESKOM and drastically reduced the ESKOM debt which was sitting at R89 Million at the end of the ANC term to R48 Million currently. We have had to cashback MIG and INEP grant funding using our own internal funds in an attempt to mitigate the dire financial situation that the former ANC leadership left the Municipality in.
We are currently enjoying 100% allocation from both MIG and INEP because of this current leadership’s intervention. The back to basics assessment of 2017/2018 showed improvement and 2018/2019 the Municipality is back to full functionality. These are well documented facts. It becomes laughable when the same MEC has the audacity to proclaim Abaqulusi as a Municipality fraught with mismanagement and nepotism.
The position of CFO was advertised and MEC was informed that only 2 people applied. MEC gave concurrence to the reappointment of the CFO, She and her team have never raised their objections to this appointment nor raised it as a problem. Unfunded budget is news to us as the MEC and her financial team interacts with us on regular basis and this has never been raised with us. The less we say about this issue, the better.
A complex institution of government like COGTA has a plethora of litigations on a weekly basis. Abaqulusi is no different. People take the Municipality to Court for various reasons and when that happens we have to defend the Municipality. It is not a unique phenomenon to our institution.
The longest and most expensive case thus far has been that of Clavashay Estate, where the provincial government interfered and mislead the Municipality into settling the matter out of Court which cost the Municipality over R53 Million. The office of the Premier as represented by Mr John Wills, hoodwinked the Municipality into believing that the settlement would have no financial implication to the Municipality as the provincial government was going to pay for the land at Kwa-Mnyathi. The Municipality is still awaiting the financial compensation promised by the Premier in 2017.
In terms of governance, Abaqulusi has a stable troika made up of the Mayor, Speaker and Deputy Mayor. They meet regularly. The executive committee chaired by myself as Mayor, meets regularly. All portfolio committees meet regularly. Our Council is fully functional and meets regularly despite attempts by the ANC to render it dysfunctional through bribing and fraud. The minimum requisite number of council meetings is 4 in a year, already at this time of the year this Council has sat 3 (three) times with 9 (nine) months to go. That is far from a “deteriorating state of governance”.
Abaqulusi Municipality has 44 gazetted seats in its Municipal Council. Before the meeting of 22 January 2019 ward 18 Cllr Thwala resigned, leaving the Municipal Council with 43 Councillors. The Municipal Council of 22 January was boycotted by ANC Councillors because one of them sent a sick note, 3 of them were arrested for allegations of bribery when they allegedly tried to influence a DA Councillor to vote for the removal of the speaker of Council.
According to S160 (3) of the Constitution and S30 of the Structures Act: a majority of Councillors must be present at a meeting to make a quorum. The Majority of 43 Councillors is clearly 22 and the Councillors present at the meeting of the 22nd of January 2019 was 22. Our position is supported by an elaborate legal opinion and latest Constitutional Court judgement. Therefore the debate about illegal meeting or decisions in neither here nor there. This last point was the main reason that prompted the MEC to take this draconian decision to intervene through S139 (1) (b) of the Constitution at Abaqulusi Local Municipality.
It is clear that the MEC was ill-advised and should do the honourable thing and discontinue the illegal intervention. What we request from the MEC is to put her petty political agenda aside and genuinely support this leadership that has shown the will and expertise to turn the fortune of this Municipality around.
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