Durban - Days after eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda detailed the municipality’s successes in his State of the City Address, the provincial Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Department has confirmed that experts will be sent to assist the metro amid administrative red flags, including its failure to spend grants.
They have been deployed by the provincial government under Section 154 of the Constitution, which allows for the provincial or national government to provide help to municipalities where there are concerns.
The experts include the City’s former municipal manager and now local government consultant Michael Sutcliffe and former director-general in the Presidency Dr Cassius Lubisi.
Cogta MEC Bongi Sithole-Moloi confirmed the Section 154 intervention at the Cogta portfolio committee meeting in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature yesterday.
Approached by The Mercury yesterday, Sutcliffe said he was aware that his name had been mentioned as part of the panel of experts but said there had been no formal meetings on the matter yet.
During the portfolio committee meeting, Madoda Khathide, deputy director-general for local government at Cogta, said the intervention came after the failure by eThekwini Municipality to spend more than R300 million in grants, including on disaster management.
Khathide had been presenting the report on the spending of conditional grants by municipalities. According to the report, eThekwini failed to spend R322m provided by the provincial government, which included:
- R100m urban settlement development grant.
- R100m public transport network grant.
- R122m neighbourhood partnership development grant.
“This is one area that made the provincial cabinet realise that something was not right at the municipality,” Khathide told committee members.
He added that the department had invited the City to provide reasons for its inability to spend grants and it became clear that it could not spend its allocations because of a lack of capacity.
Section 154 of the Constitution compels the national and provincial governments to support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities.
In terms of the section, the actions that can be taken include:
- Identifying areas in need of hands-on support, based on challenges affecting the functioning of a municipality.
- Defining the skills required to provide targeted support in a municipality.
- Deploying and employing suitably qualified staff across all municipal functional areas.
- Deploying and employing suitably qualified and skilled staff in the provincial departments responsible for local government support to enable successful use.
- Putting in place pre-determined objectives and measures for the achievement of the goals set out in the Constitution regarding support to municipalities.
DA spokesperson on Cogta Martin Meyer said the party had learnt of the intervention but described it as a “damp squib” in a bid to avoid placing the municipality under administration.
“This move is a clear indication of the seriousness of the collapse of the Metro in eThekwini. The DA will closely follow this process. We still believe that a Section 139 intervention is the best possible option for the good of the people of eThekwini.
“The DA in KZN will continue to fight for the people of eThekwini to bring effective and accountable governance to its citizens,” said Meyer.
IFP Cogta spokesperson Otto Kunene said they were not aware of the intervention but the party was, in general, concerned about the deployment of experts to municipalities.
“We are concerned that they deploy experts. Are these real experts? As there are municipalities that have been under administration for years without improvement, we need to be briefed publicly on their time-frames and targets,” he said.
The municipality declined to comment on the matter and directed all communication to Cogta.
The ANC in eThekwini said the deployment of experts would strengthen service delivery.
“We welcome this deployment which is championed by all spheres of the ANC government.”
Cogta portfolio committee chairperson Zinhle Cele said they welcomed the intervention in eThekwini.
“If you look at all the things that have been happening including allegations that senior officials allegedly do not have qualifications, all the problems around the city manager Musa Mbhele, we really need to tighten the ship because the most important thing to us is service delivery,” she said.