VRYHEID KZN: ALM one of 10 municipalities under intervention
Among the remaining challenges in municipalities under intervention are issues such as political instability, unfunded budgets, irregular expenditure or vandalism causing damage to public infrastructure.
KZN MEC for Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka recently convened a media briefing on the state of municipalities that are currently under administration in the province.
There are currently 10 KZN municipalities under administration – or under intervention in terms of Section 139 of the country’s Constitution.
“In practice, this means that we, as representatives of the provincial government, have temporarily taken over some executive functions in these municipalities to assist them, through our appointed administrators, to draft and implement wide-ranging turnaround plans to allow these municipalities to return to stability so they can resume these executive functions as soon as possible,” said Hlomuka.
AbaQulusi Local Municipality is one of the 10 municipalities under intervention. The Department of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs commented that ‘among the successes of our intervention here is the fact that the finance official who misappropriated funds from the municipal accounts has been disciplined and dismissed’. The matter was also reported to the police. R3.5 million out of R3.9 million has been recovered.
The former official is now facing a criminal case. The municipality is currently approaching courts to secure the balance of R400,000. Similarly, the MISA projects that are being implemented at eMondlo have been unblocked and are progressing well.
The municipality’s old Eskom debt of R68 million was settled in December 2020 and its current Eskom account is up-to-date. Its creditors have been reduced to R8.2 million from R100 million.
The department continued that, “The same, unfortunately, goes for Nquthu, where almost no progress has been made, despite our intensive support. The Executive Council recently reconsidered a report outlining challenges facing Nquthu and resolved to intervene in terms of Section 139(1)(b) on May 26, 2021. The reconsideration of the intervention was due to the fact that the minister declined to approve earlier intervention. Our concerns with Nquthu include its failure to investigate unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, with the municipality’s Municipal Public Accounts Committee being dysfunctional. Nquthu has also forged ahead with irregular appointments of senior managers, despite resistance from Cogta. It is also important to highlight that the judiciary agreed with us that the appointment of these senior managers was indeed irregular. It is among the 12 municipalities that have been flagged as distressed, despite our interventions that are being implemented in line with our Municipal Support Plans. We also note the resistance to our support from the Nquthu Council, as was clearly displayed last week when I, being the Member of the Provincial Executive Council, was locked out of the municipal building and had to conduct an official meeting in the parking lot. Among the remaining challenges in municipalities under intervention are issues such as political instability, unfunded budgets, irregular expenditure or vandalism causing damage to public infrastructure. All of these issues are being addressed and until they are resolved to our satisfaction, we will continue with our interventions in the relevant municipalities.”
Other municipalities that are under administration are Mtubatuba ,Emadlangeni, Umkhanyakude, Umzinyathi, Inkosi Langalibalele, uThukela, Msundazi and MPofana.
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