Mooi River municipality disbanded, councillors fired

Nomusa Dube-Ncube has dissolved the Mooi Mpofana municipality and fired its seven councillors. Image: Zululand Fever

The municipality has been in the spotlight for a while amid allegations of internal bickering, maladministration and poor financial management.

The municipality has also been plagued by a continuous series of labour unrest incidents, community protests and serious financial difficulties. Last week angry residents disrupted traffic on the N3 highway which connects KwaZulu-Natal with Gauteng.

According to Dube-Ncube, the council was given a chance to remedy the situation and had been supported through various interventions, but failed to turn things around.

"On the basis of facts, as the Department of Cogta, we approached the Cabinet and resolved to dissolve the Mooi Mpofana Municipal Council in terms of section 139(1)(c) of the Constitution, and to appoint an Administrator until a newly elected council is in place," she said.

This means that all the political responsibilities of the municipality are now vested with the MEC for Cogta as assigned by the Cabinet and the Constitution.

Integrated Development Plan not credible

The department said it discovered that the Mooi Mpofana municipality scored 47.54% for its Integrated Development Plans (IDP) in the 2013/14 financial year, which is well below the provincial average.

"Its IDP was not credible in that it omitted critical aspects such as a human resource strategy, workplace skills plan, integrated waste management plan, status of road networks, human settlements, associated levels of services and backlogs, consumer debt, borrowing and a spatial development framework," Dube-Ncube said.

She said the municipality also ignored and disregarded all supply chain management regulations.

"Further compounding matters were relentless illegal protests and councillors getting involved in infighting which has led to council not taking executive decisions. The municipality continues to experience maladministration and disarray and there is an on-going battle between rival factions," said Dube-Ncube.

"As a result, there has been a complete erosion of public confidence in the municipality. The municipal council is operating in a state of chaos. Order and stability must be restored urgently," Dube-Ncube added.

The MEC said this led to some staff members failing to take accountability for serving the public, which resulted in high levels of indiscipline and misconduct, bringing the municipality into disrepute.

She said the provincial government will ensure that Mooi Mpofana municipality gets back into good shape, and regains a commitment to service delivery.

She said dissolving the municipality should serve as an important lesson to other municipalities.

"The message we in the provincial Cabinet wish to impart on such municipalities is clear. We will not condone such behaviour because, in our mind, the purpose of local government is to deliver services to municipal residents, not to be a law unto itself and engage in destructive actions," Dube-Ncube said.