Durban — KwaZulu-Natal Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi has assured municipalities that he would not use section 139 to settle political scores.
In his address to the South African Local Government Association (Salga) members assembly in the Drakensberg mountains near Estcourt in the north-west of the province, on Thursday, the MEC said the use of section 139 as a political tool is a thing of the past. The MEC said section 139 was created to support municipalities not to punish them for political reasons, however, in the past, it had been abused.
“Municipalities are a sphere of government, not entities. They have autonomy which must be respected. My department would not interfere with their running instead, I will support them.
“Section 139 was used for political reasons and those days are gone,” said Buthelezi.
His speech dispelled rumours that he was planning to place the embattled eThekwini Municipality under section 139 following his public spat with mayor Cyril Xaba over allegations of corruption and mismanagement in the City.
The mayor openly refused to carry out the MEC’s instruction to rescind the suspension of the Deputy City Manager Sbusiso Makhanya.
Buthelezi’s approach to eThekwini is likely to strain the IFP's relationship with the DA which during their election campaign, had vowed that, it would place the City under administration. eThekwini Municipality, which is the only Metro in the province, has been besieged by administrative problems and ageing infrastructure.
Buthelezi also warned municipalities against using consultants in doing work that is supposed to be done internally.
He lashed out at municipalities that continue to outsource work and take little money allocated to them for service delivery to pay service providers.
He said last year alone, 12 municipalities paid an astonishing R43 million to consultants to do internal audits yet the municipalities had internal staff hired to do the same thing.
Buthelezi said outsourcing that work became a fruitless expenditure because many of those municipalities did not get clean audits.
He said instead the municipalities that achieved clean audits in the province were those that did not outsource.
The MEC also reminded the municipalities that Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli issued a directive during his State of the Province Address that no municipalities must get a disclaimer under his leadership.
In a recent Auditor General report only three municipalities in the province received unqualified audit opinions — the King Cetshwayo District Municipality which was previously under Ntuli as the mayor, Okhahlamba Local Municipality in Bergville under mayor Vikizitha Mlotshwa, as well as uMlalazi Local Municipality under mayor Queen Xulu.
King Cetshwayo District and the uMlalazi municipalities are under the leadership of the Inkatha Freedom Party, while Ukhahlamba is run by a coalition of the Apemo, the NFP and the ANC.
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