UPM slams Makana council’s decision to appeal administration ruling

The Makana municipal council has decided to appeal the High Court in Makhanda judgment ordering it to be dissolved and for an administrator to be appointed until a new council is elected.

At its council meeting yesterday councillors in Makhanda, formerly Grahamstown, voted 15-9 to appeal the judgment granted to the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM), which challenged the municipality for failing to deliver services and for not implementing a financial rescue plan introduced by the provincial government.

The decision was condemned by UPM, which is part of a network of civil society organisations fighting for social justice.

UPM’s spokesperson Ayanda Kota said: “It is an indictment that the Makana council can take such a decision. It is really anti-democratic because it’s a decision of the political elite that have no mandate of the people.”

He said the UPM would work to have the resolution ruling enforced and opposed the appeal, which he was confident the Makana council would lose.

Of the nine councillors who voted against the appeal, seven were from the Democratic Alliance (DA).

The high court on 14 January found the municipality failed to provide basic services and ordered the Eastern Cape government to dissolve the Makana local municipal council and appoint an administrator in terms of the constitution’s section 139, until a new council was elected.

The court said the municipality had also failed to implement the Financial Recovery Plan approved by the Eastern Cape MEC of Finance in 2015. The municipality must hold elections within 90 days.

Constitutional expert Phephelaphi Dube said, considering the recent Auditor-General’s report that municipalities were the “weakest link” when it came to managing their finances and accounting for their obligations, the country might see a flurry of court applications challenging their failure to delivery.

“This is only the beginning in terms of the courts playing a more decisive role in holding the municipalities accountable for their failure to stick to their constitutional mandates to provide the necessary services to people,” Dube said.

Nqaba Bhanga, provincial leader of the DA, yesterday condemned the ANC-led council for resolving to appeal, saying his members believed it was “yet another frivolous waste of public money”.

– ericn@citizen.co.za

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