SEDIBENG. – In February 2022, the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) Council took a resolution that R15million should be spent per annum – in the next five years – to service the salaries of created positions for political offices in the form of Executive Advisors and Researchers who should be assisting MMCs to do their work without hiccups, but to date, there is a lot of confusion in this regard.
This was revealed to Sedibeng Ster by the Democratic Alliance (DA) Leader in the ELM, Tebogo Tlhokwe.
Tlhokwe said that a year later the ELM is in disarray as the Section 80s committees are not sitting due to constant clashes because of a lack of planning. He adds that some of the Section 80 committees have never submitted even a single report to Council to date.
“We have the Sports Recreation Arts and Culture Libraries and Cemeteries, Infrastructure, and Development (SCRALIS), Human Settlement and Health & Social Development. The question is: why are these Section 80 committees not sitting? In other words, the appointments of the Executive Advisors and Researchers have seemingly undermined the functioning of the Committees of the Council. So, why are we having these Executive Advisors and Researchers? The municipality spends a lot of money in salaries of staff members employed in these Departments and full-time Councillors in the form of MMCs but there is no productivity,” he said adding that it is no excuse for the MMCs to be claiming that they are still new and learning whereas they have a complement of staff members that are appointed to execute the functions of their departments.
“MMCs should be spending a lot of time conducting their oversight role to ensure that there is value for money of goods and services to the Council and the communities at large. The Council adopted a Corporate Calendar which should be followed, but nothing is ever adhered to because these MMCs and their advisers have no idea what they are doing, they are running the municipality like a ‘Spaza Shop’.”
Amongst others, the Executive advisor’s Job descriptions are said to entail the following: –
- Manage the political oversight of Performance Agreements for the MMCs.
- Manage intergovernmental relations.
- Facilitation and implementation of special outreach programs for MMCs.
- Provide Special Advice to MMCs.
- Special liaison with key internal stakeholders for the respective Cluster/Departments.
- Generic Management functions
Tlhokwe further said that the DA Councillors had asked many questions on behalf of the community members to the Executive Mayor and the Speaker of the Council after the Councillors have conducted their oversight and that little to no responses are forthcoming.
The DA has called upon ELM Executive Mayor, Sipho Radebe to act swiftly to:
“Hold these incompetent MMCs accountable and ensure productivity and smooth functioning of their departments in specific and the municipality in general. The residents of Emfuleni deserve better from the Governing Coalition but instead, they are being given a raw deal by these MMCs.”
