Butthead’s Beat: Gold stars for municipalities

IT looks as if many of our municipalities – including those on the KZN South Coast – have finally learnt how to count, according to the auditor-general, Kimi Makwetu.

Well, sort of. In his latest audit, the AG did throw a minor haffy about the ‘over-reliance on consultants’ at a total cost to the country of R821-million.

However, just when local leaders and officials were all smiles on Tuesday about their magnificent achievements, along came a few party poopers – municipal workers – who tried to disrupt a meeting at the Hibiscus council chambers and picketed outside about ‘who-gets-what-position’ after the amalgamation of Hibiscus and Ezinqoleni municipalities.

The mind boggles. Get it wrong and the ratepayers go mad… get it right and the employees go mad. What does one have to do to win in this country?

Anyway, ‘clean’ or ‘unqualified’ audits are suddenly a cent-a-dozen throughout the country.

This is very welcome news indeed, but there will be a few sceptics in hotly-contested areas who might wonder how years of bad governance was turned around in a year, somewhat conveniently in time for local government elections in May.

But we hardly fall into that category so let’s not be cruel. Give credit when credit is due, especially to the battered and bruised Ugu District Municipality. This is just the balm it needed after Mzimkhulu salt was rubbed into the many wounds recently.

Municipal manager DD Naidoo surely deserves a huge pat on the back here. This mirrors what he achieved when he was manager at Umdoni some years ago, when the AG himself travelled to Scottburgh to sing DD’s and his team’s praises. At the time, Umdoni was one of a mere handful of municipalities throughout the country to receive a clean audit.

Then it’s also congratulations to Max Mbili and his team at Hibiscus Coast Municipality.

We, the ratepayers, are quick to criticise and hammer the various municipalities for their shortcomings. There are many of them to be sure – raw sewage polluting rivers and lagoons, salt in the water (of course), potholes, etc.

But we tend to forget that priorities and juggling rates have become far more onerous tasks post 1994. The ‘haves’ were always the priority in the old days with the lame excuse that if you looked after ‘their’ areas, the coast would prosper and jobs would be created for the ‘have-nots’. Honestly?

Anyone trying to survive on a pittance, travelling daily by taxi or three from a shack in the hinterland to get to work, might justifiably think: “That’s a crock!”

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