National and Mpumalanga governments will assume some municipal responsibilities to help the struggling municipalities discharge their responsibilities.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MInister Thembi Nkadimeng met with the municipalities in Secunda as part of the Ministerial Outreach Programme aimed at helping municipalities accelerate the delivery services among others.
The COGTA Department identified six municipalities that are struggling to deliver services.
Nkadimeng has committed to assist dysfunctional municipalities in Mpumalanga to improve.
“We will be doing Schedule Six B. What is Schedule Six B? It is when the province and the country take over some of the infrastructure development responsibilities away from the municipality to run some few projects on its behalf in order to speed up service delivery. So, we will be doing the same.”
Political instability is among the challenges facing the six identified municipalities in Mpumalanga. COGTA is planning to work closely with the struggling municipalities.
COGTA Minister says her department and the provincial government will take over some responsibilities and help the municipalities break-even.
“You may find that instability is that is caused because council is not functional we have municipalities like Thaba Chweu, we are looking at their water provision, state of their roads, service delivery which has killed tourism one of the key economy drivers in the province.”‘
The provision of clean drinking water and proper roads are some of the demands communities often make. They embark on service delivery protests demanding the delivery of those services. The protest often had ripple effect as many services are disturbed due to blockaded roads.
Some of the residents had this to say. “Some have been struggling with water for more than two years. I haven’t had running water for a month, I had to borrow wheelbarrow to go to fetch water. The main concern is that we can’t flush toilets,” says a resident.
Another explains, “Laundry is pilling up. We we use water to cook, where will we get money to buy water. the water is so dirty we cannot cook with it.”
But Mpumalanga COGTA MEC Mandla Msibi says municipalities are delivering services as planned.
”Unless you tell me which municipalities are battling with service delivery i can tell you now that our Municipalities are delivering according to their plans in terms of their plans . they are starting their financial year on the first of July and most of the municipalities are in line for their first quarter of 25 %, so there is no battling with service delivery.”
