LAST week Thursday, February 20, civic society gathered under the Let’s Talk Komani (LTK) banner, which was strongly encouraged by Zandisile Qupe, special advisor to the Office of the Premier.
Qupe was there on the request of President Cyril Ramaphosa, to put together a plan on how LTK could partner with government for a transitional period to lift the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) out of its downward spiral, as Qupe agreed that “an intervention is necessary”.
A strong delegation included some of LTK’s members, namely the Border Kei Chamber of Business, the Queenstown Civic and Ratepayers Association, the Black Management Forum, Komani Resident’s Association (KORA), Phakamisa Business Forum, the Enoch Mgijima Farmers Union, Basic Services Komani, the Queenstown Education Foundation and Zointralesa Traditional Organisation.
EMLM Mayor, Luleka Gubula, had also been invited by the Office of The Premier, but did not attend the meeting.
LTK briefed Qupe that:
- The 2019 year end audited report showed that R894 million in wasteful and unauthorised expenditure had recently been written off by EMLM;
- On average, half of the electricity purchased by EMLM had either not been invoiced, or had been stolen;
- At the end of March, the municipality must pay a rough total of R75 million for salaries, electricity and its court-ordered debt repayment to Eskom. However, its average monthly revenue collection is only R23 million. The figure of R75 million comprises a monthly municipal salary bill of R27 million, its next tranche of Eskom debt repayment of R30 million, and its anticipated current account with Eskom of somewhere in the region of R18 million.
The special advisor reported that on Wednesday, February 19, Cabinet had decided that the premier, together with MECs for finance and COGTA (all political heads), must soon visit Komani. The aim of the visit would be to deal with the municipal leadership crisis, and government is in favour of a proposal that details which areas of technical expertise civic society can offer if a public-private partnership is constructed so that there can be “one approach and one process”.
LTK’s executive leadership reiterated that it would only suspend its current court case against various organs of the State, in favour of a partnership with EMLM, when the Premier can ensure that the municipal leadership is credible and trustworthy. It was established that, in due course, a channel would be opened for confidential reports of specific allegations of corrupt municipal behaviour.
In closing, Qupe thanked the LTK delegation for caring enough about the town to offer to be part of the solution.
