Durban – The EFF in KwaZulu-Natal has condemned the violence against councillors in the eThekwini Municipality full council meeting on Tuesday.
EFF KZN chairperson Mongezi Twala said the councillors were forcibly removed from the council sitting for demanding an explanation of the city’s failure to spend conditional grant allocations.
Twala said city manager Musa Mbhele failed to spend R1.9 billion in conditional grant allocations and as a result, the National Treasury had now reduced the conditional grants to a mere R720.9 million.
“The EFF in council has consistently demanded practical plans on how conditional grants will be spent because the city has a bad record of failing to spend conditional grants when our people are in desperate need of service delivery and infrastructure. The conditional grants that have been reduced were meant for housing, stormwater and other social infrastructure,” Twala said.
He said that EFF regional chairperson Themba Mvubu, who is also chairperson of the Human Settlements and Infrastructure Services Committee, had since his appointment fought with City officials who had failed to make progress on infrastructure spending.
“Our people in uMlazi, Inanda, Ntuzuma, Clermont and many other areas are desperately waiting for the city to fix the infrastructure that was damaged by the flood,” Twala said.
“It is both disheartening and disturbing that the main reasons that are reported by officials are the refusal by the city manager to finalise appointments of contractors. We have received reports that all other committees appointed to finalise appointments of service providers have completed their work and made recommendations. However, it is not clear why the city manager refuses to do his work and ensure service delivery.”
Twala said EFF councillors would not be intimidated and the party would continue to demand accountability.
“We call on the council to be decisive and remove the city manager for failing to utilise much-needed resources, costing the city well over a billion in loss of much-needed revenue,” Twala said.
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— EFF KZN (@EFFKZN) October 31, 2023
EFF eThekwini Caucus was illegally removed by security and Metro police officers who carried guns into the chamber, when the EFF demanded accountability from the Mayor and the City Manger who failed to utilise 1.2 Billion of a conditional grant from National Treasury. pic.twitter.com/jvO5VechI6
eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said: “We want to state categorically that the municipality has neither failed to spend R1.9bn of a conditional grant allocated to repair infrastructure nor forfeited monies to the National Treasury.
“It is important to indicate that recently the National Treasury issued a circular on strict cost-cutting and austerity measures in the national and provincial governments,” Kaunda said.
“In addition, as per the communication from the national Department Human of Settlements, a Cabinet decision was taken to cut the Urban Settlement Development Grant (USDG) and the Informal Settlement Upgrading Partnership Grant (ISUPG) allocations for the 2023/2024 financial year.”
Kaunda said this was not unique to eThekwini; other metros in the country were also affected.
“There is a proposed cut of R142.4 million for the eThekwini allocation. It should also be noted that eThekwini Municipality has always spent 100% of the USDG and ISUPG grants we are the only leading metro in the Republic of South Africa that has spent its grant in full.”
Kaunda said, however, that it was correct that the municipality applied to the National Treasury for the roll-over of unspent conditional grants of R1.88bn of which R 1.5bn relates to the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant (MDRG).
“It should be noted that the R1.5bn was only received in March 2023, three months before the end of our financial year, and the city was advised by Cogta that a roll-over application for the MDRG is not required,” Kaunda said.
He said that in August, the National Treasury indicated that a roll-over application was required and advised the municipality that it wanted this application in a prescribed format and that information had now been appropriately packaged and submitted.
IOL reported that the EFF had earlier demanded Mbhele leave the meeting over allegations that the city had failed to spend R1.9bn of a conditional grant allocated to repair infrastructure and had thus had to return the money to the National Treasury.
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