KwaDukuza municipality’s annual report paints a bleak picture with only half of government’s service delivery target being met and investors leaving the region due to violence and intimidation from business forums.
This was revealed by the municipal public accounts committee’s oversight analysis of KDM’s annual report which highlighted their performance in key areas as well as challenges from the previous year.
The report showed that despite a 21 percent increase in delivery over the previous year, it was still a low 55 percent for basic service delivery and infrastructure development.
Their performance decreased in all other significant areas which included local economic development (42 percent decrease), good governance and public participation (22 percent decrease), cross-cutting intervention, spatial planning and environmental management (five percent decrease).
KwaDukuza mayor Ricardo Mthembu explained that the decline in performance from most of their key areas was due to both internal and external challenges that the municipality faced.
“In the case of local economic development where performance sits at 38 percent, we have poor cooperation and lack of resources from other government departments and agencies responsible for economic development. There is a high risk of investors leaving the area because of intimidation and violence takeover of construction sites by the business forums such as Amadelangokubona. There is also a lack of diversified investment in our area.”
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Irregular expenditure which amounted to R127 million and high overtime costs have been highlighted as a challenge for basic service delivery and infrastructure.
“The unit is still faced with the challenge of exorbitant overtime as well as irregular spending. This is based on the nature of the work done by individual business units as well as staff shortages,” said Mthembu.
To address these challenges in the upcoming financial year, KwaDukuza council has approved to adopt a shift system to try and manage overtime but there is still lack of buy-in from employees which is being addressed by the human resources department.
DA caucus leader Madhun Sing said the municipality’s performance was simply not good enough.
“A 55 percent score for service delivery tells us that KDM is failing the community and that money is not being spent the way it is supposed to be.
“Year after year, there are repeated findings in the municipality’s books, like high employee costs, underspending on capital projects and irregular spending. They need to put measures in place and actually stick to their plans.”
Sing said local economic development was one of the most important units for revenue generation.
“This speaks to our tourism, our investors and how well we are developing as a region. A 42 percent drop tells us that something is wrong in that department and it needs to be investigated.”
Sing and his party members walked out of council soon after making his comments, after Mthembu called the DA “pathological liars” who separated themselves from the council when the media were present.
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