Africa-Press – South-Africa. The Western Cape government will invite the Kannaland Municipality to brief the legislature on why it failed to implement a support plan provided by the local government department.
The provincial government conducted a diagnostic assessment of the current status and challenges facing Kannaland.
According to the municipality’s mid-year assessment report, it admitted that it was an under-performing municipality plagued by the Covid-19 pandemic, political and administrative instability, infighting among political leaders, non-functional oversight committee, lack of financial resources, little or no accountability and a non-existence of consequence management.
“Capacity constraints and a high vacancy rate, with constant court cases, are holding the municipality to ransom,” its assessment report said.
On Tuesday, the standing committee on local government was briefed on the progress made in Laingsburg, Beaufort West and Kannaland municipalities with regard to financial recovery and support plans.
The committee heard that Kannaland had not implemented the section 154 support plan, despite the department providing it last year.
According to the department, it had written a letter to the mayor of Kannaland, Jeffrey Donson, to ask about the adoption of the diagnostic assessment report and the section 154 support plan by the Kannaland municipal council in February 2022.
A section 154 support plan allows the department to provide hands-on support and to determine what the municipality should budget for in the short to long term, and what it needs to request additional support on.
Donson responded last month by asking for more time to manage the municipality’s internal affairs.
The committee heard that the current municipal manager requested further feedback with regard to the report as well as the support plan.
The session was held last month, and it was agreed by the municipality to adopt the report and plan before further action by the department.
During a council sitting on 31 March, the municipal manager responded by requesting changes to the support plan, before it was tabled at council, despite the resolution taken at the meeting earlier.
The municipal manager was reminded by the department of the resolutions, and it was pointed out that there were no fundamental changes required to the support plan.
The chairperson of the committee, Isaac Sileku, said the delay was unacceptable and it showed “a lack of commitment to the well-being of the people of Kannaland”.
“The failure to address service delivery and financial management issues is a grave concern for the people of Kannaland, who have been deprived of basic necessities, such as clean water, reliable electricity and functioning infrastructure, for far too long. These issues have persisted for a decade, and it is time for the municipality to take responsibility and act,” he said.
Donson said the support plan would only be on the agenda on Friday.
“The provincial and local management teams had to work through it first,” he said.
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