Municipality 'cannot function'

The Buffalo City Municipality, which scooped a national service delivery excellence award three years ago, faces being stripped of its executive powers by the Eastern Cape provincial government.

The move follows concerns by senior government officials that the municipality, which incorporates East London, King William's Town and Bhisho, is on the brink of financial and administrative collapse.

On Friday, local government and traditional affairs MEC Sicelo Gqobana said his department would be informing the council of its intentions to invoke Section 154 of the Constitution.

His spokesman, Pinky Bata, said this meant that the provincial government would not dissolve the council, but would instead provide administrative support to the municipality.

Gqobana said his office would be deploying a delegation to the municipality "to obtain a fair appreciation of the challenges confronting the municipality to determine areas of support". The delegation would be led by his superintendent-general, Stanley Khanyile.

"The department has (presently) offered the municipality R400000 as support," Gqobana said, adding the impending intervention followed a series of meetings held between the department and the municipality since last year.

The planned intervention will focus on a turn-around strategy and the implementation of a financial recovery plan.

''The department is committed to build viable, sustainable developmental municipalities that deliver basic services," said Gqobana.

Several businesses, from guest houses to restaurants, this week painted a grim picture of the city's municipal services.

They cited the poor maintenance of roads, inconsistent refuse collection, dilapidated bulk water infrastructure and a billing system in disarray.

Business Times this week established that a delegation appointed by co-operative governance minister Sicelo Shiceka visited the municipality last month to assess the extent of the crisis.

A senior official in the provincial department of local government said this week the municipality's problems were a result of infighting among the councillors, and that this had now impacted on service delivery.

She said the municipal manager's office, which heads the city's administration, could no longer perform its functions.

Since August last year, councillors have been at loggerheads over the appointment of new municipal manager, Mandla Sithole, who has yet to assume duties.

Political interference has even affected refuse collection in East London, the second-largest industrial centre in the province, with ratepayers threatening to stage a protest march to the city hall.

Buffalo City has had three mayors - Zintle Peter, Sakhumzi Caga and now Zukisa Faku (who has been expelled from the provincial ANC) - in about two years.

The Democratic Alliance this week said the ANC was more involved with internal infighting than governing the city.

On Friday, the DA's parliamentary leader, Athol Trollip, told Business Times that service delivery in the city had "ground to a halt".

"It's not a surprise at all that provincial government wants to take it over," he said, adding that apart from infighting, corruption had also become a problem.

Trollip said the infighting within Buffalo City was also exacerbate by the political division between the ANC's regional and provincial leadership, who were at loggerheads over problems plaguing the municipality.

"The rapid speed in the breakdown of service delivery is truly shocking ... and to think that just three years ago, this municipality won the Vuna Award for service delivery excellence," he said.

Buffalo City's accelerated plunge into chaos since June last year and the government's plans for recovery were triggered by a number of factors, including:

• The provincial auditor-general, Singa Ngqwala, last month released a damaging audit report on the city's finances. This revealed that most of the city's budget could not be accounted for. This was the third consecutive year that Buffalo City had received a qualified audit opinion, which is given if the auditor-general disagrees with the treatment or disclosure of information in the financial statements.

• Buffalo City's acting municipal manager, Vusumuzi Mavuso, and his directors have appeared before the ANC's provincial headquarters in King William's Town, where they explained that they required political stability for them to do their work.
• Buffalo City mayor Faku was expelled from the provincial ANC in November by the Amathole regional working committee for bringing the image and reputation of the ruling party into disrepute.

Faku faced a total of 12 charges, including undermining the ANC by appointing a new municipal manager outside the ruling party's deployment procedures, reshuffling the mayoral committee, and the irregular use of council credit and petrol cards. Faku remains in office until such time as the national disciplinary committee has made the necessary findings and announcement.

• The ANC Amathole region's disciplinary committee also expelled 22 Buffalo City councillors from the party in November, arguing that they had brought the party into disrepute by supporting the appointment of the new municipal manager.

It was the infighting among councillors that prompted the ANC's national executive committee, the party's highest decision-making body, to intervene.

It had become apparent to Luthuli House, the ANC's national headquarters, that the Amathole regional working committee (the ANC's regional leadership) and provincial working committee (the ANC's provincial leadership) were at loggerheads over the problems plaguing Buffalo City.

The auditor-general's latest report showed the city's finances to be in disarray. A lack of adequate documents and explanations meant that there was R1.9-billion in expenditure that could not be confirmed.

R318-million of the city's capital budget was unspent due to a failure to implement its tender policy, and an adequate explanation could not be provided for there being a difference of R1.2-billion between the city's asset register and the existence of those assets.

Faku, who has often been accused of being central to the chaos and infighting within the municipality, has fired six councillors from her mayoral committee. They had sided with her critics last year.

The axed councillors had apparently supported former chief whip Sonny du Plessis, who is believed to be at the forefront of the move to oust Faku.

Last year Du Plessis was stripped of his council duties after being accused of flouting the ANC's constitution and councillors' code of conduct when he took the council to court over the appointment of the new municipal manager.