Riyaz Patel
Parliament’s select committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) has recommended the National Council of Provinces to urgently intervene to “stabilize” the Amahlathi And Richmond Municipalities.
The parliamentary pronouncements came as Gauteng Cooperative Governance MEC Lebogang Maile said a committee has been set up to investigate allegations of fraud, maladministration, and corruption in Gauteng municipalities.
The parliamentary COGTA committee members visited the Amahlathi And Richmond Municipalities last week and said “much-needed stability” is needed amid “declining service delivery levels.”
In Richmond, it emerged that “ballooning unauthorised, irregular and wasteful expenditure had swelled by 510 percent year-on-year,” it said, adding that “deteriorating financial management has led to creditors not being paid.”
The COGTA committee added that it was concerned that the instability in both municipalities has “impaired its abilities spend the the Municipal Infrastructure Grant.”
Committee chair China Dodovu said: “Local Government is at the coal face of service delivery and that it is untenable to have municipalities unable to perform their constitutional functions.”
“9 out of 11 municipalities in Gauteng are at risk of dysfunctionality.”
Gauteng Cooperative Governance MEC Lebogang Maile
MEC Maile told a media briefing in Johannesburg that his department had visited ten municipalities and found there was “grave corruption and mismanagement in most of them.”
He added that 9 out of 11 municipalities in Gauteng are at “risk of dysfunctionality,” Maile said, citing the Auditor-General’s report on municipalities.
Maile further said that the provincial government may place some of these municipalities under provincial administration.
The MEC said the committee would investigate and act on corrupt activities.
“The terms of reference of the committee will be to inquire, making findings, report to the MEC concerning the following, guided by the Constitution, relevant legislation, policies, and guidelines, whether and to what extent municipalities are fulfilling their constitutional mandate,” Maile said.
The committee would start work immediately and given three months to execute its mandate.
