Cogta MEC dissolves troubled Mpofana Municipality
"The municipal council is operating in a state of chaos and order and stability must be restored urgently"
Violent service delivery protests, maladministration, misconduct and abuse of public funds are just some of the reasons KwaZulu-Natal Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Nomusa Dube Ncube based her decision on to dissolve Mpofana Municipality in Mooi River.
The announcement was made on Wednesday after the MEC visited the troubled municipality and convened a meeting.
This comes after a weeklong service delivery protest, which escalated to violence last week.
More than a thousand Bruntville residents burnt tyres and protested on the N3, demanding better service delivery and that Mayor Janet Mchunu step down.
Specialised police forces were roped in to calm the rising tensions and were based at strategic points in the town to prevent protestors from entering the central business district. Cogta stepped in last week and a delegation was sent to intervene but this proved fruitless when the MEC announced that the municipality would be resolved and the seven councillors relieved of their duties.
The department found that the Mooi Mpofana municipality scored 47.54 percent for its Integrated Development Plan in the 2013/14 financial year, which is well below the provincial average. Its IDP was not credible in that it omitted critical aspects such as a HR strategy, workplace skills plan, integrated waste management plan and status of road networks among others.
“Further compounding matters were relentless illegal protests and councillors getting involved in infighting which has led to council not taking executive decisions. The municipality continues to experience maladministration and disarray and there is an ongoing battle between rival factions. As a result, there has been a complete erosion of public confidence in the municipality. The municipal council is operating in a state of chaos and order and stability must be restored urgently,” said MEC Dube-Ncube who will now be responsible for the political responsibilities at the municipality. The MEC hopes that this intervention will bring stability to the small town.
“Our objective in the provincial government is to ensure that Mooi Mpofana municipality gets back into good shape and regains a commitment to service delivery. We would also like this intervention to serve as an important lesson to other municipalities where similar tendencies towards anarchy are rearing their ugly head. The message we in the provincial Cabinet wish to impart on such municipalities is clear: we will not condone such behaviour because, in our mind, the purpose of local government is to deliver services to municipal residents, not to be a law unto itself and engage in destructive actions,” Dube-Ncube concluded.
