OR Tambo District Municipality executive mayor, Mesuli Ngqondwana, has spoken of the need for the district municipality to focus on its mandate, and not be “all over the show” in terms of its planning.
He was speaking to Express during the district municipality’s two-day strategic planning session for the upcoming municipal financial year, held at the Savoy Hotel in Mthatha last week.
Ngqondwana said incoherent planning by the district municipality results in competition with local municipalities, in areas where they have a legislative duty to support their local municipalities.
“The Mayoral Lekgotla that preceded the strategic planning session spoke of the need to repurpose the district municipality.
“The reason for that is that we think the municipality is all over the show and in some instances repeating things that could be planned for by local municipalities, and we end up competing with our local municipalities,” said Ngqondwana.
He further said that a repurposed OR Tambo District Municipality would result in efficiency and good governance, within the district authority.
“The strategic planning session has been emphatic on the need for the district municipality not to compromise on its mandate on things that can be done elsewhere. Coupled with that, we are saying we should ensure that our support departments are capable on issues of good governance and finance,” he said.
Ngqqondwana also revealed that the district municipality has addressed all the problematic issues that led national treasury to invoke Section 216 of the constitution, which resulted in withholding of the municipality’s equitable and conditional grant funding.
National treasury had cited non-compliance to the norms and standards as required by the Municipal Finance Management Act as a reason for withholding the funds.
Ngqondwana said Section 216 has been lifted, and all the funds that were withheld are being released to the district municipality.
“The National Treasury has effectively lifted Section 216 based on undertakings we had to make as a district municipality. Amongst those undertakings were the reversal of the incorrect previous council decision to upgrade the salaries of all employees, two notches up.”
“There were also issues of unfunded budgets where we had to adjust downwards in terms of budgeting, and putting up a credible financial recovery strategy to give assurance that, moving forward, our use of municipal finances is in accordance with relevant legislation,” said Ngqondwana.
Various stakeholders, including the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), religious formations, and business fraternity also attended the two-day session.
