It is a question that is on every Makana citizens' mind, and nobody in the municipality has been able to answer that question.
It is a question that is on every Makana citizens' mind, and nobody in the municipality has been able to answer that question.
We on the other side are not going to stop asking that question because we think everybody in this community deserves to know what led Makana into this current trouble.
The municipality is governed by three sets of legislation: the Municipal Systems Act, the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Structures Act.
These are the laws are meant to be followed, no matter what.
There are cases of certain people who believe they can do what ever and get away with it. What should be done with those cases?
I was quite astonished by what was said by the honourable MEC Fikile Xasa last week that the rule of law will always apply in cases where the law was broken.
Now that is something that we would love to see happen, getting law enforcement officers involved.
If people misuse funds there must be some accountability there; somebody is obliged to answer serious questions about that.
Another little dose of information from Makana Municipality is that ratepayers owe almost R200 million in rates.
That cannot be the only explanation for the serious financial problems at play here. Makana also owes service providers around R139 million.
The difference is that though service providers take the municipality to court, Makana seldom takes drastic action on people who don't pay.
We have heard of people who owe millions, yet they are not cut off. Some people even want their debts to be written off – yet they make millions.
I guess what I am trying to say is if people had done things by the book, Makana would not have an empty bank account.
There was a lot of spending on operations last financial year.
Officials and politicians spent a lot of money staying in hotels outside of Grahamstown, having what they called 'strategic sessions' – but how fruitful were those sessions?
They ended up being classified as fruitless expenditure.
If the law guiding local government is not followed, there is still a long way to go.
These pieces of legislation should be the daily guide of how a council should be run, but there is always contravention of the laws.
I somewhat feel sorry for the new person who is coming to take the reins. How are they going to change this municipality within three months?
It would be possible if there was no political interference but it will always be there, no matter what.
The council decides, and the current one has made "unpopular decisions" as the Executive Mayor Peter would correctly put it.
Makana leadership needs to do the right and honourable thing… and we all know what that is.
