COME 2016, the Ntambanana Municipality will be no more and plans are well underway to ensure its smooth dissolution and absorption into neighbouring municipalities.
This follows an announcement by the Municipal Demarcation Board (DMB) last year that the Zululand municipality would be incorporated into uMhlathuze, Mthonjaneni and Mfolozi municipalities after the 2016 local government elections.
Municipal Managers of all six municipalities within the uThungulu District met last week to spearhead the formation of technical committees to drive the process as mandated by the KZN Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).
Wards 1 – 4 of Ntambanana will be absorbed into Mthonjaneni Municipality while wards 5 – 8 will be incorporated into uMhlathuze. uMfolozi municipality will take a small portion of just one ward.
uMhlathuze Municipal Manager, Dr NJ Sibeko, told the Zululand Observer the move would benefit the impoverished communities of Ntambanana and fast-track service delivery
‘The municipality has a very low rates’ base and by incorporating the wards into uMhlathuze, they will be assisted with better facilities and resources. Boundaries will be determined before the 2016 local government elections,’ said Sibeko.
Ntambanana along with Hlabisa were affected by the DMB’s decision to reduce the number of municipalities in the province from 61 to 54 after the local government elections.
Hlabisa will be merged with Hluhluwe’s Big 5 False Bay Municipality.
Both Hlabisa and Ntambanana are wholly rural municipalities and depend solely on government grants to survive.
According to KZN COGTA MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, the dependency on external funding had often led to financial mismanagement without meaningful accountability to the local ratepayers – be they private residents or businesses.
‘Many non-viable municipalities have evolved into entities in which operational expenditure on salaries for municipal officials have routinely crowded out service delivery to a point where such municipalities only exist as a source of employment without providing essential services to their communities,’ said Dube.
