KwaDukuza improves Cogta scorecard
But issues remain relating to vacancies in the corporate services department, gender inequality at director level, service delivery concerns on grant spending and electricity management.
KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) has been tentatively classed as stable by the 2022 local government report, but still has work to do in administration and service delivery.
The report is yet to be finalised by the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs department (Cogta), but the findings were recently presented to council by local government expert Brian Nkontwana.
First compiled in 2019, the 2022 version will be the third iteration of the report which aims to provide real time status on municipalities countrywide so that Cogta can target interventional measures as needed.
Locally, in the 2021 edition, KwaDukuza was listed as low risk (a score of between 65% and 74%), as was Ndwedwe municipality.
The iLembe District, Mandeni and Maphumulo municipalities were all listed as stable, which indicates a score of above 75%.
Municipalities are judged on risk factors under five main banners – political, governance, administration, financial management and service delivery.
KwaDukuza has improved on many of the previous issues raised, but still faces vacancies in the corporate services department, gender inequality at director level and service delivery concerns on grant spending and electricity management.
The process to fill the post of executive director for corporate services is already underway, while it was confirmed that KDM was granted an extension on disaster relief funds that were not spent timeously.
Further queries raised by the report dealt with unavailability of land for cemeteries and non-functioning wards.
There are programmes underway to address both.
As for electricity, aside from the soaring losses, an alarming statistic was raised in a report by Contour Technologies about the implementation of a new token system for prepaid meters.
In their due diligence for a proposal, Contour found that of the 50 000 registered meters in the municipality, only around 24 000 were active.
This points to a trend of electrical mismanagement in KwaDukuza and partially explains why the department currently runs at a loss.
Similar issues were found in the iLembe report when focused on water provision, which found that more than 30% of households across the district had no access to water.
Over 19 000 households (12.2%) had no access because there was no infrastructure in place, while almost 29 000 (18.1%) did not have access because the infrastructure was dysfunctional.
In-depth feedback has yet to be delivered to the other councils within iLembe and was not available at time of print.
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