We don’t answer to Afriforum says municipality
"Afriforum does not have any form of representation and participation in the Municipal Council of the JB Marks Local Municipality"
“Afriforum does not have any form of representation and participation in the Municipal Council of the JB Marks Local Municipality therefore they do not have any right to demand the Municipal Administration to account to them on frequent basis,” reads a statement from the municipality in reply to Afriforum calling for the resignation of the municipal manager.
Earlier this week, The Herald published an article in which Afriforum called for the resignation of the municipal manager (MM), because according to the organisation, the MM had no plan to turn the tide of the struggling municipality.
In a press release the municipality denies what is calls the baseless, frivolous and fixations insinuations and allegations made by Afriforum.
“The Municipality categorically and deliberately states that allegations made by Afriforum are at the least synonymous to an organization that is ill-informed or if anything clearly slow to comprehend when explained to,” reads the statement.
Afriforum and the municipality had a meeting on 8 April, wherein the municipality explained what steps will be taken to address key service delivery issues. Afriforum asked that these plans be sent to them by 14 April. Which the municipality did not do.
“Agreeing to a meeting with Afriforum was a measure of courtesy which was misunderstood and unfortunately abused by Afriforum. The Municipality has already stated to Afriforum that it has conducted an analysis and assessment of its capacity to be able to deliver basic services to communities and outcome of such an assessment has concluded that the Municipality
needed to address some critical areas to enhance on its ability to deliver basic services to the communities. These factors are common knowledge to most of the people because the Municipality has always been candid about its state of affairs,” the statement reads.
In the municipality’s reply they note
- Â Inadequate numbers of employees in the Municipality
- Â Inadequate levels of skills experience and expertise in some of the municipal
employees. - Lack of sufficient adequate and appropriate tools of trade such as equipment materials
and vehicles
as key factors which already have plans in place to improve. According to the municipality, Afriforum either has not been listening to the municipality or has not been paying attention.
“The Municipality will however not be surprised if Afriforum has deliberately ignored the strategy as communicated because at the top of the agenda of Afriforum is the ability of Afriforum to infiltrate the procurement committees and tender processes of the Municipality. We are stating this because despite the explanations made by the Municipality
to Afriforum in the last meeting that was convened between the two parties, the last parting shot that Afriforum made to the Municipality was that they were pleading and requesting to be included in the procurement committees of the Municipality.
This request is absurd as it demonstrates the blatant lack of knowledge on the side of Afriforum on how the administrative processes of the Municipality are conducted. What is clearly showing and glaring is the desperation of Afriforum to take over and be in charge of the tendering processes of the Municipality. We are therefore challenging Afriforum to
refute or deny if they had requested to be included in the tendering committees of the Municipality,” the municipality said in a statement.
Afriforum said in their first statement that they had requested to have a say in the tender processes as the law makes provision for the community to have a say.
“It must dawn on Afriforum that the Municipal Manager was appointed by the Municipal Council and it can only be the Municipal Council that can terminate the contract of employment with the Municipal Manager or the Municipal Manager himself who can decide to resign his position which at the pointing time he does not intend to do so,” the municipality said.
