Pretoria - The North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee for Local Government and Traditional Affairs is pleased with the progress of municipalities placed under administration.
On Wednesday, the Committee held a meeting with the Administrators of Matlosana, Ditsobotla and Maquassi Hills Local Municipalities, to assess the state of affairs in the embattled municipalities.
Committee Chairperson Auchalie Mothupi said the reports tabled before the committee show that there is a green light in terms of addressing challenges of these municipalities.
“All that needs to happen is for the councils and the intervention team to work together to ensure that when the term of administrators end, the municipalities will be able to continue with their work.
“When we get the next reports it should be owned by both council and administrators,” said Mothupi.
However, Mothupi said although the committee is pleased with the work done, it acknowledged that more work needs to be done to render services to the people.
“Support from the political leadership is key in order to ensure that our people are happy. The administrators must send monthly reports to the council before the meeting with the committee,” said Mothupi.
The municipalities were placed under administration by the provincial government in April 2013, but there was resistance from the councils, as a result, some of them started only this month to work.
Ditsobotla Municipality
Administrator at Ditsobotla Municipality, Matshidiso Dikoko, told the committee that when the intervention team arrived at the municipality they found:
- the Municipal Manager was not correctly appointed;
- there was nepotism;
- the Equitable share Grant was withheld by National Treasury because the municipality owes Botshelo Water R32million;
- the municipality was paying a company responsible for law enforcement speed cameras about R250 000 a month and yet the municipality was not receiving any revenue from the traffic fines; and
- a security company’s contract was irregularly extended from R347 000 to R850 000.
“There was resistance when we arrived at the municipality. The Municipal Manager instructed management not to cooperate with the intervention team. He was later dismissed after a court battle.
“As part of addressing the challenges that the municipality was facing, payments on contracts that are still under investigation have been withheld and we are busy holding meetings with our creditors for payment plans,” said Dikoko.
Maquassi Hills Municipality
The administrator at Maquassi Hills Municipality, Igbal Motal, discovered vacancies for the Section 56 managers; an excessive expenditure on legal costs in excess of R4 million and there were many outstanding disciplinary cases and grievances.
The municipality also had problems on cash flow management resulting in most creditors not being paid.
“We appointed three directors to fill in the vacant posts of Section 56 managers. All pending legal matters were reviewed to determine prospects for settlement.
“Services of an experienced labour relations officer were acquired at no costs to assist on some of the cases and this resulted in some of the suspensions lifted and disciplinary cases beyond time frames withdrawn,” said Motal.
Matlosana Municipality
With regard to Matlosana, council resisted the implementation of Section 139 (b), delaying the administrator from resuming with the rehabilitation of the municipality.
The administrator started to work at the municipality earlier this month and the committee felt that they needed to allow them space to continue with their work.-SAnews.gov.za
