Samwu general secretary Simon Mathe said, “We hope that his experience in Merafong will not be felt throughout the country.” Mathe said the union has noted with concern the appointment of Van Rooyen as the new minister of Cogta, the department responsible for the running of the country’s 278 municipalities. He said as one of the largest stake holders and the largest union in local government Samwu’s first interest is the sustainability of the country’s municipalities in the interest of service delivery.
Minister Van Rooyen has made headlines in the past week after he surprisingly replaced Nhlanhla Nene as the Minister of Finance sparking an outcry from South Africans. Yesterday the President Jacob Zuma announced that Van Rooyen and Pravin Gordhan would be switching portfolios effectively meaning that Pravin Gordon would be having a second stint as the minister of Finance. However Mathe said Gordhan had brought about relative stability to the department and precisely to municipalities through his interventions. But he said Van Rooyen was no stranger to local government, as he was head of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) in the North West and former mayor of the Merafong Municipality. “A history which is of great concern to us. We however welcome the minister’s appointment with the reservations we have, we further wish him well in his newly found responsibilities with the country’s municipalities. We trust that there will be room for engagement between ourselves and the minister on how we can work together to improve service delivery, strengthen municipalities and further better the lives of municipal workers,” Mathe said.
He also urged the minister to urgently meet with national treasury on how the two departments can work together in the interest of municipalities. Mathe said it’s saddening that Gordhan has left the sector but trusted that he will help steer the Rand to recovery from the fall experienced in the past few days. He said Godhan knows the issues faced by municipalities which include underfunding through the Division of Revenue Act. The union urged Gordhan to rectify the unfair treatment of municipalities by giving equitable share that will be sufficient for the running of municipalities. “The country’s municipalities are expected to deliver services to over 50 million South Africans with just nine percent of government expenditure while national and provincial governments both receive over 40 percent each, thus short-changing a sphere of government which is close to the people and responsible for the provisions of basic services,” Mathe said.
