New municipality, new name
There will be a whole new process of determining new wards and deciding on a new name for the new municipality.
IT will cost R447 400-million to facilitate the restructuring of the Hibiscus Coast and Ezinqoleni Municipalities. This was said at the executive committee meeting which was held at the HCM council chambers on Tuesday.
Both municipalities have made a business plan requesting funding from KwaZulu-Natal Treasury.
“The municipalities had to draw up a business plan to submit to KZN treasury for funding application,” HCM manager Max Mbili told executive members.
Not only funding will be needed for the merger, but there will be a whole new process of determining new wards and deciding on a new name for the new municipality.
Currently HCM has 29 wards and Ezinqoleni has 6 wards, but the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Nomusa Dube Ncube, has the final say on how many wards the new municipality will have.
Mr Mbili added that the MEC has the right to increase or decrease the number of councillors.
“With the amalgamation of the two municipalities, we will have to expand our council chambers,” said HCM mayor Cynthia Mqwebu. She added that new office space would be needed to accommodate the new staff.
“We will have a meeting with our staff members to update them on the process of the merger, and inform them on how they will get affected,” said Mr Mbili.
Public consultation processes will be hosted soon to decide on the new name and the new ward boundaries.
