Local Government Committee happy with progress of Administrators in Section 139 Municipalities
The North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee for Local Government and Traditional Affairs is happy with the progress of Administrators in municipalities that were placed under Section 139(b).
The Committee held a meeting with the Administrators of Matlosana Local Municipality; Ditsobotla Local Municipality and Maquassi Hills Local Municipality to assess the state of affairs in these municipalities.
They 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.
The Administrator at Ditsobotla Local Municipality, Mr Matshidiso Dikoko told the Committee that when the Intervention team arrived at the municipality they were faced with the following challenges; the Municipal Manager was not correctly appointed; there was lots of nepotism; the Equitable share Grant was withheld by National Treasury because the municipality owes Botshelo Water R32 million; 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 has, payments on contracts that are still under investigation have been withheld and we are busy holding meetings with our creditors for payment plans,” said Mr Dikoko.
The Administrator at Maquassi Hills Local Municipality, Mr 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 to 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 Mr Motal.
For the Matlosana municipality, the 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 beginning of February and therefore the Committee felt that they needed to allow them space to continue with their work.
The Committee Chairperson, Hon. 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, we must get reports that are owned by both council and administrators,” said Hon. Mothupi.
Hon. Mothupi said although the Committee is happy 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,” concluded Hon. Mothupi.
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