I have been reading numerous articles and listening to radio interviews by the leadership of Inkosi Langalibalele Local Municipality through the Mayor.
What I have been picking up is that every wrong thing that happens at the municipality is attributed to the previous council and this is what prompted me to respond and not be silent while there is misleading information shared by ‘leadership’.
For the past five years when I was the political head of Umtshezi Local Municipality, we always had challenges on how we draft our budget considering the backlog in terms of service delivery against our revenue. The municipal budget had always been in deficit.
It is upon council to find ways enhancing revenue collection. During the 2011/2012 financial year, council took a resolution to write-off debt of just above R30 million because it could not be recovered. This was as a result of the indigent register not being up-to-date.
The council was owed just above R90 million by government departments (I had to personally drive to Pretoria to engage with various departments that owed the municipality to request payments), businesses and residents.
Uzoyithola kanjani uhlezi ekhoneni? There were too many families living under serious poverty, hence we had to introduce programs like allocating budget for drivers licence, Extended Public Work Project, Community Work Programme, National Youth Development Agency, etc.
The roads were in a bad state so we had to ‘BUY’ yellow plant for more than R14 million that was received from ABSA. We could not afford to buy the vehicles, so we had to lease them so that we can deliver services to our communities.
What informed the decision of leasing the vehicles was the fact that as these vehicles were for public services, they would depreciate in no time (we wanted to minimise risk from the municipality in cases of repairs, maintenance and servicing the vehicles, etc).
We also had a challenge with project management, which saw millions being committed to certain projects over and above the allocated budget for example the Wembezi Multipurpose Centre was allocated an extra R15 million.
Mayor, the political leadership (councillors) might have changed to some degree, but you still have more than half that returned after being re-elected. More importantly you still have the same senior management that was there previously, make them account.
Just thought that I should give that little background for the current council through the Mayor to understand that in a municipality you don’t just enter through the door and find money waiting for you.
Local government is complex and within those complexities there has to be plans of delivering services in a sustainable and economical manner. Initially, my Mayor, you were quoted saying that about R47 million went missing from the municipal account, how far is the investigation if any?
Or was it just a political stunt to make the previous council look bad? Currently your councillors each have two bodyguards, totalling to 28, excluding the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Speaker and senior management.
ARE YOU REALLY CUTTING COSTS OR IS IT STILL THE PREVIOUS COUNCIL TO BE BLAMED? You are spending just above R700 000 per month on the salaries of bodyguards.
When you came into office you employed contract workers without placing properly those employees that were already within the system as per the placement policy as adopted by the change management committee (CMC).
AGAIN IS IT THE PRVEVIOUS COUNCIL? You are spending above R650 000 per month on these contract workers, whereas you have permanent staff that you can allocate those responsibilities to.
Above are just two simple and typical examples of the type of decisions you took under your leadership Mayor. Every municipality in the country has a challenge regarding the shortage of funds, Inkosi Langalibalele is not the only one.
But strong leadership and the understanding of how local government operates helps to find strategies of enhancing revenue collection. The blame game is not going to bring about services to the needy people and to our rate payers, where you fail ask for assistance and learn to take responsibility as a leader.
No one is perfect, so accept where you lack knowledge and seek help. Uzehlise where needs be. You talk about the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) resigning as if he was running away, for your information I personally received a letter from the CFO stating that he had received a better offer of just above plus minus R1,4 million, which was more attractive than plus minus R750 000 that he was receiving from Umtshezi.
Was he not supposed to leave? By the way the former CFO stays in Estcourt and I’m sure that when requested to respond to any query that you might have as a Mayor, he will do so.
To give you a solution as well ngoba mina angikhulumi ngezinkinga ezingenasixazululu, is that when we voted in favour of the merger between Umtshezi and Imbabazane local municipalities it was because there was a commitment from the Treasury Department and the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) to fund the merger and the budget will be allocated to all merging municipalities.
If you took time to read the resolutions of the CMC and engage the two departments on funding the merger, you would have found the first solution dealing with the tight budget that you see yourselves in.
The reality is that without the assistance from COGTA and Treasury (in terms of funding) the newly merged municipality will never be sustainable simply because the scope of work has increased but the revenue base is the same.
Your focus should be on dealing with service delivery issues affecting your community especially the youth.Inkombankombane ngeke ikusize, Zehlise and ask for help la ohluleka khona! More responses to come with more clarity soon.
Mr Bongani Dlamini
Former Mayor of Umtshezi Local Municipality
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