Former director-general in the Presidency Cassius Lubisi is to the intervene in the running of the eThekwini municipality to prevent its placement under administration.
The KZN department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs confirmed it had invoked section 154 of the Municipal Systems Act on Tuesday.
Section 154 allows the national and provincial government to “support and capacitate municipalities to manage their affairs, exercise their powers and perform their functions” through legislative and other measures.
If the municipality fails to reverse its situation, it could be subjected to section 139, which includes putting the municipality under administration.
As part of the intervention, the department appointed Lubisi to lead a group of highly-qualified senior technocrats as part of the intervention to turn around the embattled municipality.
Siboniso Mngadi, KZN Cogta spokesperson, told TimesLIVE Premium the department had enlisted various support teams for almost a year in an effort to assist eThekwini municipality before invoking section 154.
“Support teams from national and provincial government departments have been working with KZN Cogta for almost a year to provide support to the eThekwini Metro. Various teams of experts have been roped in from national and provincial departments, and in some instances they take a shape in a form of district development model,” said Mngadi.
Mngadi said similar assistance had been provided in other municipalities.
Reacting to the intervention, the views of parties in the council followed their voting lines.
Mazwi Blose, EFF provincial spokesperson, said Cogta was imposing itself by making this intervention without providing specific reasons that necessitated it.
“We still want to understand what exactly compelled them to invoke this intervention. Cogta must wait and allow the city to operate its functions on its own. If that fails then they can come and assist, but they must allow the municipality do its work and not seek to be principals,” said Blose.
He conceded the city was plagued by many challenges, including ghost workers and those who are underqualified.
He said the crisis in the city had not reached a point that it couldn’t be solved internally, adding that a proper plan of a turnaround strategy is all that is needed.
However, opposition parties welcomed the intervention and said it was long overdue.
It is with great concern that we note that this intervention comes after significant damage caused to the municipality ... It is regrettable that both the provincial and national government failed to act promptly when the signs of decay were evident.
— Thabani Mthethwa, DA caucus leader in eThekwini council
Thabani Mthethwa, DA caucus leader in eThekwini council, said most of the crisis in the city could have been avoided if national and provincial governments had acted when they raised these issues in 2021.
“It is with great concern that we note that this intervention comes after significant damage caused to the municipality. The DA had repeatedly called for intervention and raised alarm bells about the mismanagement, corruption and service delivery failures that plagued eThekwini. It is regrettable that both the provincial and national government failed to act promptly when the signs of decay were evident,” he said.
Mthethwa also noted that the intervention of section 154 had not yielded any tangible results in Umsunduzi municipality and said the DA still believed that invoking section 139 would be a better option.
Section 139 means the municipality is dissolved and put under administration.
The IFP’s Mduduzi Nkosi shared similar sentiments.
“What surprises us is why so late? Shouldn’t they just implement section 139 like they do in IFP-led municipalities? If you introduce section 154 you want to capacitate the municipality to do better, but can you honestly say such a big municipality lacks capacity?” he said.
“So it’s not about a lack of capacity, unless the reports of cadre deployment is true. How can a municipality with so many infrastructure challenges be returning millions of rand worth of grants?”
Nkosi, like the EFF, blamed the ANC’s factional battles for the instability and crisis in the city.
“We don’t know if section 154 will work in eThekwini because the ANC factional battles are a mess where different factions are pulling in opposite directions. The same is happening with the administration. So I don’t think this intervention will work because the infighting within the senior leadership goes a long way. It shows that the cancer within the ANC is now within the officials,” he said.
The city directed queries to Cogta, who in turn, did not go into details on what led to the decision to invoke Section 154 now.
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