Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Mopani District Municipality in Limpopo has taken the provincial government to court after it was placed under mandatory intervention.
Section 139(a) of the Municipal Systems Act makes it mandatory to intervene in specific areas of governance at struggling municipalities.
The municipality has received two successive disclaimer audit reports.
It has been plagued by unauthorised, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure as well as being unable to deliver water to communities.
The municipality owes bulk water supplier Lepelle Northern Water more than R200 million.
A special council sitting was convened last Friday in which a resolution was passed to reject the mandatory intervention by the provincial government.
Municipal spokesperson Odas Ngobeni said:
Ngobeni did not want to comment further on the court case.
Meanwhile, Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs MEC Basikopo Makamu described the standoff as unfortunate.
“The intervention was just to issue directives on areas that the municipality needed to be supported on. It is on financial management, and water provision and transaction.
“It is an unfortunate situation that a municipality, when it is to be supported, feels that it should interdict the provincial government,” Makamu said.
“The intention is not about a particular individual but to help the institution. Therefore, I think they were supposed to welcome [the intervention].”
The standoff over the intervention dates to last year.
Then, the provincial government initiated an assessment of the municipality after obtaining a disclaimer audit opinion.
However, some in the ANC interpreted the move as political because Mayor Pule Shayi, who is also the chairperson of the Mopani district, broke ranks by not supporting Premier Stan Mathabatha for another term as the party’s provincial chairperson.
However, Makamu said the assessment was also implemented at two other struggling municipalities – BelaBela and Greater Giyani – which have since improved their audit opinions.
The DA said it was worried the court action would result in huge legal costs at Mopani residents’ expense.
“The municipality must focus on implementing the AGSA (Auditor-General of SA) action plan to track progress on the 2021/22 findings and to implement the internal audit action plan for 2022/23 to ensure residents receive much-needed services of uninterrupted water delivery,” the party’s Mahlatswa Ramalepe said.
The EFF also welcomed the move to place the municipality under mandatory intervention.
However, it cautioned the move should not only be for “political expediency” but be extended to all other struggling municipalities.
“We expect the municipality to comply with all corrective measures…” the party said.
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