Parliament’s Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has appealed for political leadership and oversight, discipline and unity at Mafikeng local municipality.
The committee was recently on an oversight visit to the municipality to interact and solicit inputs from both internal and external stakeholders following the provincial government’s decision in June this year, to invoke the provisions of Section 139 (1) (b) of the Constitution. The Constitution makes provision for the provincial government to intervene where the municipality fails to fulfill its constitutional mandate.
The intervention at Mafikeng local municipality sought to bring stability on the following areas:
- Governance and Administration
- Service delivery
- Financial Management and
- Good labour relations practice
In 2004, the municipality was placed under administration for poor financial management and administration.
Last year, the municipality was also identified as a priority municipality for Section 106 investigation by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) as provided for by the Municipal Systems Act no 32 of 2000, after numerous allegations of fraud, corruption and maladministration were leveled against the municipality.
Chairperson of the Committee, Humphrey Mokgobi called on all stakeholders to commit themselves to all processes during the intervention period. He further urged councilors to perform their oversight role on the administration.
The Acting Deputy Director-General of the Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Themba Fosi said the department will deploy a rapid response team to assist turn around the municipality.
Both a financial expert and an engineer from the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) will be deployed to the municipality as part of Siyenza Manje initiative which is intended to build capacity at local government level.
