eMBALENHLE – Umphakathi Social Movement (USM) is calling for the Govan Mbeki municipal council to be dissolved in terms of Section 139 (1) (c).
The social movement has written to the Minister of Cogta, Ms Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, to Ms Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane, Premier, and Mr Jeffry Msibi, MEC for Cogta, demanding that serious action be taken against the municipality for its failure to adhere to the principles of good governance, the inability of the municipality to provide basic services and for its failure to meet its financial obligations.
In the open letter the organisation is accusing the municipality of exhibiting gross service delivery failures, financial mismanagement and a failed administration for the entire term of office 2016-2021.
They mentioned that residents of eMbalenhle have been subjected to municipal scheduled power cuts for every single day of their lives for over a decade now.
“In an attempt to resolve this, the municipality appointed Bigen Africa. The conditions of their appointment were that the practical completion of the project would be October 2019, however to date, there appears to be no sign of partial or practical completion.
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“The municipality has received adverse disclaimer reports from the auditor general since the current Chief Financial Officer (CFO) was appointed.”
They also alleged that the CFO worked in the municipality for over a year without his appointment contract and that the legislative requirements of the lack of contract of employment points to a interesting conclusion of the current developments within the Govan Mbeki Municipality.
They claimed that there has been no refuse removal for June and July, owing to the fact that employees have downed tools due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE).
They acknowledged the intervention made by Gogta with establishing a financial recovery plan for the Govan Mbeki Municipality in 2019.
However, they are concerned that such an intervention has not yielded the desired results and that this is witnessed through the persistent municipal failure to honour its financial obligations both to Eskom and Rand Water.
“It is now crystal clear that the financial recovery plan intervention in terms of S 139 (5) (a) of the Constitution has failed.
Govan Mbeki Municipality failed to honour its payment agreement with Eskom and Rand Water since February.
“We further note that Mr Msibi instituted a Section 106 investigation into Govan Mbeki Municipality. Residents deserve to know the outcome and the findings of the investigation conducted in our institution.”
USM made a demand that the Section 106 forensic investigation report be released to the public to know the extent of wrongdoing within their institution.
They demand that Mr Msibi furnishes residents with the reasons for the delay of over a year in signing the CFO’s contract of employment.
They also demand that he provides them with reasons on the persistent failure of practical completion of the electricity project by Bigen Africa.
They demanded a response to this open letter within seven working days upon receipt.
The Govan Mbeki Municipality was not available for comment.
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