The Dikgatlong Local Municipality, which is situated in the Frances Baard District, incorporates the towns of Barkly West, Windsorton and Delpoortshoop and is one of the poor-performing municipalities in the Northern Cape Province. The poor-performing municipality attracted the oversight eye of the NCOP and was visited by the Northern Cape's permanent delegates to the NCOP on the eve of the last day of the week-long NCOP's Provincial Week programme.
According to its Mayor, Mr Willie Mogongwa, for a long time the municipality was in the hands of senior administrative officials, namely the municipal manager and the chief financial officer who didn't stand by its mandate but stole its resources. He told the NCOP delegates and Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs) that the Municipal Council realised very late that the municipality had no systems of governance in place. He said instead of adhering to the legislation that governs the expenditure of public money, legislation such as the Public Finance Management Act, the municipal manager and the chief financial officer would ask for a council approval for bigger expenditures.
Mr Mogongwa told the permanent delegates to the NCOP and the MPLs that at some stage, he, the municipal manager and the chief financial officer were summoned by the then-Minister of Cooperative Governance, Mr Pravin Gordhan, to present the financial state of the municipality to the minister so that the department could release the Municipal Infrastructure Grant it withheld because of the failure of the municipality to submit reports before deadline. "The municipal manager presented a report about the financial state of the municipality that made even me felt extremely proud to be the Mayor of the Dkgatlong Local Municipality. His presentation assured Minister Gordhan that the municipality was financially viable and could even rely on its revenue," said the mayor. He said he and the Mayoral Committee were misled by the officials.
Mr Tau told the mayor that he and the Mayoral Committee should carry most of the blame for the struggling Dikgatlong Local Municipality. "You slept for five years, no wonder the officials stole the resources of the municipality and you can't say you were misled. Just say you slept rather for five years hence these people took what they wanted to take," said Mr Tau. He said the mayor should be worried about the heavy albatross of overstaffing, overdraft and other consequences of his failure to keep the administration under constant spotlight. The 20-year-old municipality is going backwards now to a crawling stage because the mayor slept while the criminals stole its resource.
The NCOP delegates and MPLs appealed to the mayor and the entire leadership of the municipality to work hard to ensure that the Dikgatlong Local Municipality becomes what it was visualised to be at its creation 20 years ago. "There are municipalities that perform well nationally and in the Northern Cape to draw lessons from. The Sol Plaatje [Local Municipality] is on your doorstep, you don't need budget to go there. You can even walk there to learn from them. Don't be afraid to ask them, they will certainly help you," advised Ms Mase Manopole, who is one of the Northern Cape's permanent delegates to the NCOP.
The Phokwane Local Municipality, which is also among the poor-performing municipalities that also received disclaimer audit outcomes in the last financial year, was also visited by the NCOP delegates and MPLs yesterday. Like all the other poor-performing municipalities, the Phokwane Local Municipality fails to deliver services to the people, has unstable financial administration and no systems of governance in place, among other things.
Residence complained about a lot of problems in the public meetings that took place in Galeshewe and Jan Kempdorp yesterday. Among the problems they highlighted included the delivery of basic services to the people, non-delivery of houses, failure to fix the existing crumbling Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses, failure to adhere to the Integrated Development Plan, absence of water and sanitation, non-existence of old age homes and evictions. Mr Bennett Sokgero, who is a former ward councillor, told the NCOP delegates and MPLs that the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality is selective in its delivery of basic services to the people. "We have gone to them on numerous occasions to complain about the non-delivery of basic services to certain communities. They deny me the right to express my dissatisfaction on the grounds that I was a councillor," said Mr Sokgero.
Mr Tau assured the residents that he will take their grievances to the relevant national departments, and those that are supposed to be taken to the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality's leadership, will be delivered to that leadership. On the crumbling RDP houses, Mr Tau told the residents the Department of Human Settlements has a programme called National Housing Rectification Programme in place to deal with crumbling RDP houses all over the country. According to Mr Tau, all the RDP houses that have defects were identified for rectification. On old age homes, he said the government discourages what he called "the dumping of old citizens by their families".
By Mava Lukani
24 July 2015
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