KwaZulu-Natal Treasury has officially withdrawn its financial support services to Umkhanyakude District Municipality, citing concerns over wasteful expenditure and lack of cooperation from municipal officials.
Finance MEC Francois Rodgers confirmed the decision in a formal letter addressed to the municipality’s mayor, Siphile Mdaka, on Thursday.
Rodgers said the decision was taken in a bid to conserve provincial government resources and redirect them where it is possible to work freely in the spirit of building a capable and ethical state.
According to the MEC, KZN Treasury teams had on various occasions travelled to Umkhanyakhude a day in advance, to facilitate a full productive day with municipal officials.
However, the teams have often found themselves subjected to late cancellations of sessions by municipal officials, either the evening before, the mornings of scheduled meetings.
“These [recurring late cancellations] has resulted in fruitless and wasteful expenditure being incurred by KZN Provincial Treasury,” Rodgers said.
In his letter to the mayor, Rodgers emphasised that Treasury has limited resources, and in determining which municipalities to support; the municipal manager is required to “commit to the initiative and to provide assurance that the Treasury teams will receive full cooperation.”
“This clearly has not happened, and I have therefore instructed my team to withdraw from the municipality and to reassign the resources to other municipalities that desperately require our support,” Rodgers said.
Intervention in municipality
The withdrawal of support comes as Umkhanyakude District Municipality faces heightened scrutiny.
KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Thulasizwe Buthelezi, recently invoked Section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution to place the municipality under administration.
The section empowers the provincial government to intervene when a municipality fails to fulfil its constitutional mandate to deliver services.
Buthelezi has launched a forensic investigation under Section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act to probe allegations of corruption and maladministration within the municipality.
“This investigation, being conducted in terms of Section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act, aims to thoroughly examine the various allegations. The intervention will ensure that officials are held accountable should any wrongdoing be uncovered by the investigators,” Buthelezi said. – SAnews.gov.za
