Energy losses, issues of compliance and an inability to effectively manage disasters are among the biggest risks to the KwaDukuza Municipality (KDM) in 2022/2023.
This was revealed in general council last week when the quarterly risk management register was presented.
The register is compiled by the risk management committee as a way for councillors and officials to identify risks and potential issues so that they can play their oversight role.
A priority list of 10 is chosen, which included the aforementioned factors, as well as concerns about KDM’s IT capabilities, ability to grow revenue, efficient service delivery and management of rapid urbanisation and climate change.
Councillors welcomed the register, with African National Congress (ANC) ward 29 councillor Sicelinjabulo Cele adding that there was a concerning level of unemployment among KwaDukuza’s youth.
Energy losses again saw a bipartisan outcry from councillors, who demanded legitimate consequence management and consistent workshops on what the department was doing to remedy the situation.
“For months we have been asking for an update on energy losses and have had no response. I don’t know whether this is disrespect or insubordination,” said ANC ward 17 councillor, Tarzan Naicker.
Municipal manager, Nhlanhla Mdakane, defended the municipality’s response.
“My office has sent a formal letter to executive director Jali (of the electrical department) and we expect a reply within two weeks. KwaDukuza is now taking this very seriously and we are ready to take further actions to remedy the situation,” he said.
Regarding consequence management, which has been repeatedly flagged in internal audit documents, council was workshopped on the disciplinary regulations for senior management.
This after it was revealed that only eight out of 31 issues raised by the Auditor General were properly addressed, with 16 in progress and seven showing no progress at all.
The disciplinary regulations were gazetted in 2011, prompting questions from councillors as to the lack of consequence management in that time period.
“If this has been in place since 2011, why have we seen no real consequences for senior managers in the interim years?” asked Independent Alliance councillor, Ebrahim Kolia.
Mdakane said two senior managers had been dismissed using the guidelines.
Also presented in council was the fourth quarter performance management systems report which showed some of the further issues faced by KDM in the previous financial year.
In terms of matching a pre-set list of key performance areas (KPAs), every quarter of 2021/2022 underperformed compared to the previous year.
At the same time, the capital expenditure in every quarter exceeded that of the previous year, some of which may have been explained by the impact of flooding in the fourth quarter.
“This gives us a true reflection of the municipality’s underperformance. Despite spending more, the performance in terms of the KPAs has gone down. We need to see consequence management implemented,” said ActionSA caucus leader, Nel Sewraj.
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