Co-operative Governance Minister Zweli Mkhize says his department has taken a decision to intervene to help all the municipalities that are in distress. Mkhize told the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) that more than 87 per cent of the country’s municipalities are either underperforming or completely dysfunctional.
He says there is an urgent need to intervene in these municipalities before they could jeopardise the provision of basic services.
Mkhize was presenting his budget policy statement in the NCOP. The Minister says the Auditor General’s Report has revealed that many of the country’s 257 municipalities are under performing and poorly managed. He says this has prompted national government to intervene.
“All the performance of the majority of the municipalities remains below the expectations. Seven percent of the country’s municipalities are classified as well functional. Thirty one percent of the municipalities are classified as reasonable functional, and thirty one percent are classified as almost dysfunctional and the remaining are classified as dysfunctional. We have decided to intervene decisively to address the state of affairs. We have identified 87 percent distress and dysfunctional municipalities with programmes classified into three main areas, firstly the area of governance and administration and secondly the area of financial management and infrastructure services. “
There are 226 municipalities which receive the Municipal Infrastructure Grant funds. However, many of them have been under spent their grants. “Many municipalities have been unable to obtain the municipal infrastructure grants. This means that many people have been unable to obtain services such as water, roads and electricity. There are two hundred and 26 municipalities in the country that are receiving municipal infrastructure grants fund. Over the MTEF (Medium Term Expenditure Framework) period government has made an allocation of R46 billion and R16 billion has been allocated for the 2017/2018 financial year that is the one we are concluding now.”
Mkhize says one of the problems at municipal level of government is the appointment of people who are not qualified for the positions. “Many municipalities that are dysfunctional are facing problems of poor management that are created by lack of people with right qualifications in key positions. The right people with correct qualifications must be appointed in municipalities. We will not compromise in that aspect. During the 2017/18 financial 243 positions were completed with competent and qualified managers. A total 99 corrective actions were taken where the appointments were made in contravention of the Municipal Systems Act.”
