The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has welcomed with mixed feelings the announcement by the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) which will see the number of municipalities in the province shrink from today's 61 to 54 by 2016. The MEC for Cogta Honourable Nomusa Dube, yesterday, 16 October, convened a press briefing in which she expressed her departments reaction to the announcement by the MDB.
"We have consistently advocated a more flexible model of local government than the present one where most of our deep rural municipalities depend for their survival on conditional grant funding because they lack a viable rates base. We have never ruled out the possibility of redrawing the municipal boundaries to achieve this goal" said Dube.
According to Dube in its support of local government, COGTA in KZN has witnessed first-hand the effect the lack of a viable rates base has had in these rural municipalities. The dependency on external funding has often led to financial mismanagement without meaningful accountability to the local ratepayers - be they private residents or businesses.
During the briefing, Dube, also gave an outline of key activities that would be undertaken by her department in order to ensure that there is a smooth transition within the Municipalities that will be amalgamated into others.
