Parliament, Thursday, 15 August 2019 – The Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) is dismayed by the state of affairs in the Amahlathi Local Municipality. The committee visited the municipality as part of its constitutional obligation to monitor interventions in municipalities under section 139 (1)(b) of the Constitution.

“It is very clear that the municipality is on its knees and its current state highlights the general dearth of good governance within the local government sphere, within the municipality and across the country. It is unacceptable that a municipality that was a beacon of hope in the Eastern Cape, winning Vuna awards and had stable finances, is in the state it is currently,” said the Chairperson of the committee, Mr China Dodovu,

Despite the challenges the municipality faced, the committee denounces the burning of municipal offices and service centres as that has compounded the challenges that the municipality has to face. The committee is of the view that there is a need to engage and enlighten communities about the unintended consequences of vandalism and damage of infrastructure which in the long-term might mean diversion of scarce resources to rebuild the infrastructure.

The committee welcomes the assurance that the administrator appointed by the MEC for Cooperative Governance has, together with critical stakeholders such as labour, new political leadership and the community at large, led to some level of stability within the municipality. This steadiness is said to be brought about by political stability, and the re-establishment of good governance measures and stabilising of finances of the municipality.

But the committee is concerned that a number of reports of investigations into the municipality were ignored by the council. This is a direct undermining of oversight and fiduciary duty that the council has, as elected by the community. With a new set of investigations to be tabled in the council by the MEC, the committee has called for the speedy implementation of the recommendations that will be made in those reports.

The committee also emphasises the need for consequence management for all wrongdoers without exception. “It is only through consequence management that challenges faced in many municipalities will be averted,” Mr Dodovu emphasised.

The National Development Plan has as its emphasis the professionalisation of the public service. It is therefore unacceptable that there are allegations of nepotism within the municipality. The unintended consequence of employment of people on the basis of relation not only undermines service delivery, but will intensify the trust deficit between the municipality and the community.

The committee is concerned that the municipality has been unable to spend its Municipal Infrastructure Grant which is at the heart of service delivery, especially to poor communities. While the committee welcomes the steady upwards curve in expenditure of this grant, it has highlighted the impact of non-expenditure on eradicating water and sanitation, roads and community lighting backlogs, especially in poor communities.

“Service delivery must be prioritised and this can only happen when every stakeholder is committed to working together to turn around the municipality. But to achieve this, the municipality together with CoGTA must prioritise the buying of tools of trade to assist the municipality to deliver services,” said Mr Dodovu.

Intensive focus must also be placed on revenue collection, which has dwindled dramatically since the challenges started. It is unacceptable that revenue dwindled from R20 million to R6 million, which has a direct impact on the work and financial viability of the municipality.

The committee will meet next week to deliberate on whether it will recommend to the National Council of Provinces to support or oppose the intervention as required by the Constitution.

ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS MR CHINA DODOVU.

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