Mtubatuba municipal manager suspended

22 October 2014 - 21:41 By Sapa
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Children are forced to wash their school uniforms and drink dirty water which they share with livestock from a local dam at Tholokuhle village in Mtubatuba, on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal. The village is not far from President Jacob Zuma's plush Nkandla homestead
Children are forced to wash their school uniforms and drink dirty water which they share with livestock from a local dam at Tholokuhle village in Mtubatuba, on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal. The village is not far from President Jacob Zuma's plush Nkandla homestead
Image: THULI DLAMINI

The municipal manager of the Mtubatuba local municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, Siyabonga Ntuli, has been suspended, the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs said on Wednesday.

"The municipal manager has been placed on precautionary suspension on full pay with effect from October 20, pending the finalisation of the investigation and possible disciplinary proceedings against him," said spokesman Lennox Mabaso.

He said Ntuli was put on suspension after investigations by the appointed administrator Bamba Ndwandwe.

He said Ntuli was facing allegations of misconduct relating to the awards of tenders and failing to perform the duties of the municipal manager in accordance with the provisions of the Municipal Property Rates Act.

"Since the allegations are of a serious nature, Mr Ntuli is prohibited from contacting any municipal employee or employee of any of the service providers appointed by the municipality and from entering any of the municipal premises without the supervision of the appointed administrator."

Mabaso said the administrator contended that Ntuli's continued presence at the municipality might jeopardise the investigation of the allegations made against him.

The Mtubatuba municipality was placed under administration by the provincial cabinet after the collapse of governance to the extent that operations had almost grounded to a halt, compromising the delivery of services.

As part of their mandate administrators had to implement the recovery plan and take action against anyone compromising good and clean governance in the municipality, he said.

He said the intervention in the Mtubatuba municipality had yielded more improvements, including moving from a disclaimer audit opinion to a qualification in the 2012/2013 financial year.

"There has been improvement in project implementation with the MIG [municipal infrastructure grant] expenditure. Operating deficit has been reduced from R27 million to R8m."

He said the municipality managed to clear a bank overdraft of R6m in June 2013.

Collection had increased from R900,000 a month to an average of R1.6m a month.

The infrastructure implementation programme had managed to complete all MIG projects implemented in the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 financial years, he said.

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