Pretoria - The North West Local Government and Human Settlements Department has decided to terminate its intervention order at the Maquassi Hills Municipality.
The termination of the intervention was decided at the recent provincial executive council meeting.
Local Government MEC Collen Maine said there was a need to institute a different intervention.
“This decision came after careful consideration and the realisation that the intervention has run its course and that the provincial government should provide support to the municipality in terms of Section 154 of the Constitution.”
Section 154 states that: “the national government and provincial government, by legislative and other measures, must support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to manage their own affairs, to exercise their powers and perform their functions.”
Maine also announced that the Section 139(1)(b) intervention instituted on the financial matters of the Matlosana Local Municipality will end 30 June 2014.
The Ditsobotla Local Municipality intervention will continue, but the current team deployed there will be replaced.
Section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution was invoked in April last year, at three municipalities – the Ditsobotla, Matlosana and Maquassi Hills Local Municipalities- following the decision by the provincial executive council.
The interventions were as a result of governance and administration challenges in the municipalities, which negatively affected service delivery.
Other reasons included poor governance and management of council matters by the municipal councils, poor leadership and oversight by the councils, breach of the code of conduct by councilors, poor relations between council and administration, deterioration of service delivery, poor administrative leadership and a lack of administrative capacity within the municipal administrations.
Section 139 states that if a municipality cannot fulfil its executive obligations, the provincial executive must intervene to ensure that the executive obligation had been fulfilled.
This means appointing an administrator for the municipality to function fully. - SAnews.gov.za
