KwaZulu-Natal Premier, Sihle Zikalala has identified the cash-strapped uMkhanyakude District as one of the municipalities that have not been co-operative under government intervention.

The provincial Treasury has taken over financial control in the municipality after it failed to pass the municipal budget on time.

The provincial Co-operative Governance Department has released an assessment of how municipalities have fared over the past three years.

Zikalala was speaking on the side-lines of an event attended by senior municipal officials in Empangeni, on the North Coast.

“Where municipalities are faced with challenges and leaders appreciate that there are challenges, the interventions works. But where, like in uMkhanyakude, some leaders will not appreciate challenges, then the intervention will not work. One of the challenges is uMkhanyakude have been even the failure of the Council to meet and we were also considering maybe we should just disband it. In areas when we intervene, where we work together with the leadership, we use to improve the capacity and the performance of the municipality. But in areas where the intervention is met by resistance, then it does not succeed” says Zikalala.