Makana Mayor Zamuxolo Peter says he's ready to face the music, after the municipality was formally placed under administration in a special cabinet meeting this morning.
Makana Mayor Zamuxolo Peter says he's ready to face the music, after the municipality was formally placed under administration in a special cabinet meeting this morning.
At a press briefing in the Grahamstown City Hall on Wednesday 10 September, local Government MEC Fikile Xasa confirmed the finishing touch to the process started two weeks ago by Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Xasa emphasised that this was the municipality's last chance to get their act together. Flanked by his senior management team, Xasa paid the town an urgent visit today for the second time in two weeks, to announce that the Provincial Executive Council (Exco) had officially approved the implementation of section 139 (1) (b) of the Constitution.
The MEC urged Makana Municipality's leadership to work together with the administrator who would assume duty on Monday 15 September.
At the press briefing, Xasa said this was the last effort to get everyone involved to work together to move Makana Municipality forward. He appealed to all stakeholders to support the intervention, so it could succeed.
"It is the last opportunity in terms of the Constitution. The next step would be section 139 (1) (c) and it's not something we wish to get to, because that would mean a complete dissolution of the whole administration," Xasa said.
Makana Municipality is one of the few in the province that have contributed negatively to the province's local government performance rating, according to Xasa.
"In fact, we said to ourselves that at the end of September we wanted to stabilise municipalities. Makana has not helped us to realise that target… "We expect the leaderships of municipalities to take charge of their situation. "The department is there to provide support, but can only understand the gaps if we are also close to the situation," he said.
Xasa said the government was uncomfortable with the levels of political and administrative instability in some municipalities in the province. He said it was time to reverse the status quo. He said a radical approach was needed to bring stability and good governance in the best interests of communities.
The Mayor openly acknowledged the municipality's failure, saying it was time for Makana's leadership to put aside their egos and face the music.
"I think we have made things easy because we have done our own introspection as to what are the challenges of this institution," he said. "I think we can safely say we have set aside our egos as the leadership and agreed, because there was a Council resolution to that effect," said Peter.
He said they would embrace the intervention of 139 (1) (b) and not interfere with the process. Peter acknowledged Makana's leaders had let the province down.
"I think the MEC is right to say we have let the province down as far as he is concerned. Makana is strategic in nature and we don't deserve to be where we are at the moment.
"We have learnt from our mistakes and we believe that with the assistance of the province we will turn things around," Peter said.
