Parliament, Wednesday, 28 October 2020 – The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) last night interacted with the Gauteng Provincial Department of Cooperative Governance on the state of Emfuleni Local Municipality.
This comes after the committee concluded a stakeholder engagement with the community of Emfuleni on the state of the municipality last Friday, following the recent oversight visit to Emfuleni. The committee had to use an alternative venue due to community unrest in the municipality and the committee is concerned about the increasing level of public discontent in Emfuleni.
At the heart of the discontent is the series of interventions by the provincial executive, in particular the intervention preceding the current one. It began with the resolution of 5 February 2019 where exco approved the appointment of Mr Oupa Nkoane to implement the section 139(1) (b) intervention on behalf of the provincial government, in his capacity as acting municipal manager.
The committee raised it concerns that the department took almost two years to realise that the appointment of the administrator was done incorrectly.
The committee also learned that the province and national government disagreed as to whether there should have been an administrator in the first place, since section 139(1) (b) was not explicit on this. The fact that this happened between spheres of government responsible for cooperative governance is regrettable.
The committee also heard that there was no consultation with the South African Local Government Association (Salga) on the interventions, including the financial recovery plan, a reality to which the current administrators admitted. Of concern is that some employees of the municipality and the union claimed to know nothing about the financial recovery plan. Salga was also not privy to the quarterly progress reports. The Municipal Finance Management Act envisages that Salga would receive these quarterly progress reports and that there would be consultation with the association prior to finalisation of a financial recovery plan.
The lack of consultation with Salga on the Emfuleni intervention is not an isolated incident because it also happened in respect of the intervention into the City of Tshwane, despite the fact that the provincial department disputes it. This suggests an inter-government relations system that has broken down and raises questions around the capacity of the provincial Cogta to foster cooperative governance in line with its mandate.
A major challenge currently is the default judgement against the municipality, which is financially catastrophic compounded by the R870m looting spree of which there has been no action taken over the irregular expenditure, financial recovery or consequence management. Of particular concern to the committee is the communications within the municipality, as staff claimed to have learned about this in the media. The fact that this all happened while the municipality was under intervention does not inspire confidence in the efficacy of the administration team.
The intervention experience of Emfuleni is worrying because it portrays a disturbing trend where Cogta and its appointment of administrators is becoming part of the problem rather than a solution. The committee saw this during the recent oversight to KwaZulu-Natal where the Mayor of Mpofana literally pointed an accusing finger at one of the provincial Cogta officials, previously deployed in that municipality as an administrator. This is a problem that requires urgent attention and the MECs must assist the committee in this regard.
The committee resolved during its oversight to Emfuleni, that the matter of the non-compliant intervention with MEC Leogang Maile must be taken up and therefore called the MEC to come and account. However, MEC Maile refuted this, as he said that he
does not concur on appointments of senior managers as it is done by council.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON FOR THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS, MS FAITH MUTHAMBI
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