Africa-Press – South-Africa. Knysna municipality has been issued with a notice of intention to intervene in its affairs by the Western Cape government, citing governance failures with collapsing infrastructure and poor basic service delivery.
Local government, environmental affairs and development planning MEC Anton Bredell issued the notice in terms of the constitution and said he was considering making a recommendation to the provincial executive that the council of the Garden Route town be dissolved.
The municipality has been governed by unstable coalitions.
Bredell said despite repeated interventions to assist the municipality, it continued to experience “serious challenges in governance and service delivery”.
“Despite various interventions, the municipality has not prioritised addressing its executive obligation failures. Consequently, the situation continues to deteriorate, even with assistance from the national and provincial governments.
“The quality of municipal services is worsening, with service delivery crises becoming more frequent. It is foreseeable that basic service delivery will continue to degrade unless the [provincial government] intervenes in the municipality.”
He said the consequences for residents had been severe, including:
repeated sewage spills;
prolonged water shortages; and
inconsistent refuse removal.
“The municipality’s failure to rectify its lapses in service delivery resulted in numerous directives and notices being issued by agencies tasked with environmental compliance and enforcement. Citizens have organised themselves and taken it upon themselves to attend to some of the service delivery failures at their cost.”
The provincial government said it would make a decision once it received the municipality’s response to the notice.
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