All the executive powers were allocated to the administrator, Mr Theo van Vuuren, for the duration of the administration that was extended for another six months up to March 31.
Member of the Provincial Executive Council for Community Safety, Security and Liaison, Mr Vusi Shongwe and Member of the Provincial Executive Council for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Ms Refilwe Mtsweni broke the news on Tuesday, September 30.
The positions of the Executive Mayor and members of the mayoral committee (MMC) have been suspended for the duration of the intervention. In practise they are reverting to be normal Proportional Representative Councillors. In terms of the constitution, the executive mayor still has specific functions associated with the position and will continue to execute these. But her decision-making powers have been stripped.
The people affected by this decision are: Cllr Salome Sithole (Executive Mayor) and the following members of the Mayoral Committee Paul van Castle (Local Economic Development), Leslie Nhlapo (Development and Planning), Connie Similane (Infrastructure and Basic Services), Derick Skosana (Public Safety), Thandi Mokwena (Finance) and Leonah Ntshalintshali (Administration and Resource Management).
The position of the Speaker to the Council, Cllr Augustine Mkwanazi, is not affected. She will continue to chair the council and perform her duties in respect of ward councillors and community matters. Likewise the Council’s Chief Whip, Cllr Sunday Mathebula, is also not affected by this announcement.
Some of the finer details on the full implications and how internal processes will be affected will still be finalised over the next few days. For now, the immediate implications are that all decisions to execute the turnaround strategy will rest on Van Vuuren’s shoulders. To be advised on matters, the directors and advisors as well as the Section 79 oversight committees of council will play an important role in the next chapter of the intervention.
The Provincial Executive Council met on September 3 and several discussions took place that influenced the decision to suspend the MMC and the executive mayor.
During the meeting, priority focus areas were scrutinised and it was decided to strengthen the financial support from the provincial government in respect of infrastructure and financial systems. The next phase of the intervention will focus on the financial side of matters. This includes the settling of the huge debt to Eskom, recovering of long outstanding debt, looking at water and electricity losses and rooting out illegal connections. Outstanding debt owed by government to the municipality will also be a focal point and part of this phase is to make sure all this debt is settled. Then building a positive cash flow to allow gearing for development is also in the plans, so is sorting out illegal land use and broaden income base.
Service delivery also gets its moment in the spotlight.
Emphasis will be put on building the municipal institutional capacity to deliver services in a more efficient manner. Here the centres of attention will be finalisation and phased implementation of the organogram, filling of senior management positions and attraction of technical skills, the revamping of the Information Technology infrastructure and systems, renewal of vehicle fleet and last but not least making sure all fraud and corruption within the municipality is rubbed out.
Running hand in hand with the financial programmes is the increased investment in infrastructure to rehabilitate and expand capacity to ensure better service delivery. This category will look at the lessening of water and electricity losses to acceptable levels and very importantly the rehabilitation of water and sanitation networks.
Other very important elements that will be getting attention is the expansion of capacity of water and sanitation plants, the increasing bulk electrical network, revamping the road network, and fixing up municipal assets like Witbank Dam Resort and the civic centre.
When putting on the Human Settlement Development cap, the widespread informal settlements will be addressed by formalisation of informal settlement areas, accommodating backroom dwellers and normalising land use management.
Emalahleni Local Municipality was placed under Administration on April 23 last year, as a direct result of a collapse in service delivery and financial failure. The intervention was initially to be for a period of six months. As a result of the comprehensive challenges in turning the situation around it has been extended a number of times.
Van Vuuren said the decision by the Provincial Executive Council is an important milestone in the road to recovery and must be viewed as the seriousness with which the government views the service delivery problems in Emalahleni.
“I foresee that the role of ward councillors and committees as well as other community groups will be critically important in this period. Most of our councillors are passionate towards the improvement of the lives of their communities and I am looking forward to working closely with them in this final stretch of the intervention period. In this period the administration will take the lead and accountability for development actions, but can only do so, and rightly so, together with all elected councillors, as representing our communities.
“We have made a lot of progress during the past year but as the last month’s water problems have shown, our infrastructure base is still far from stable. A lot more needs to be done. “
The man at the helm of the intervention also gave positive feedback and said the provincial government has indicated their support and the municipality will be receiving more than R100-million of additional funding to invest in water and sanitation projects. Further support on financial management and the rooting out of corruption has also been pledged.
“Finally, the community of Emalahleni deserves a better functioning municipality and environment. Despite making progress we are by far still not living up to these expectations. The provincial government has entrusted the administration to continue addressing these issues and have given us a further six months with an extended mandate to make a difference. In this I need your patience and support to succeed.
“Saying this, I would like to invite the engineering and planning fraternity in our city to offer their advice and expertise to the intervention team in the form of membership to a newly to be established technical advisory committee. There is a wealth of knowledge in our community and people who are willing to contribute a few hours of their time per week to assist us in finding solutions to problems and to plan and implement these are needed. Please e-mail me on tjvvuuren01@gmail.com if you are willing to form part of this committee.”
