Court papers by two entities that are asking the Makhanda high court to order President Cyril Ramaphosa to dissolve the ANC-led Enoch Mgijima municipal council paint a depressing picture of an administration and council hostile to positive change.
The applicants, Let’s Talk Komani and political party The Independents, say that after several failed provincial and national interventions over five years, the situation has become significantly worse.
The applicants want the court to declare the municipality in breach of its constitutional obligation to ensure the sustainable provision of services or manage its administration and budget to prioritise the basic needs of the communities it is supposed to serve.
They are represented by Wheeldon, Rushmere & Cole attorneys in Makhanda.
In his affidavit, prominent Komani businessman Ken Clark paints a picture of burgeoning municipal debt, political arrogance in the face of well-meaning provincial and national interventions, and hopeless municipal management.
Since the first provincial intervention in 2018, Clark said, the Enoch Mgijima municipality’s Eskom debt had soared from R333m to well over R1bn today.
This is despite two financial turnaround plans devised first by the provincial administrators before 2020 and another by a national intervention in 2022.
He describes all the interventions as “abject failures”, meaning the next logical step would be to dissolve an inept council that has been the major obstacle in the road to improvement.
It was estimated there was a 30% overpayment of employees due to ghost employees, incorrect salary grades and excessive overtime.
Almost the entire revenue was spent on payroll.
There was a waste water crisis, a waste collection crisis, an uncontrolled municipal dump site, regular water and electricity outages, no control of stray animals and very little municipal firefighting capacity.
Added to all of this was woeful revenue collection and annual unfunded budgets being adopted.
The first report was compiled by provincial administrator Vuyo Mlokhoti.
Prophetically titled “How to Collapse a Municipality in Full View of its Vanguard”, the report set out significant unauthorised expenditure by council members for which no-one was held accountable despite his best efforts.
His recovery plan was never implemented.
He recorded instances where management of the municipality supported by councillors overtly undermined him.
Mlokhoti, who became ill, was replaced by another administrator who concluded at the end of 2019 that the financial recovery plan was not being implemented and the provincial executive should consider requesting the national cabinet to dissolve the council.
In June 2020, the high court made an order by consent that the financial recovery plan would be implemented.
But, not a single milestone was met, Clark said.
In March 2022, the municipality failed to obtain an interim interdict to prevent a third administrator from “interfering” in the affairs of the municipality.
The national executive stepped in with its intervention in April 2022.
It appointed a national cabinet representative [NCR] to assist with the implementation of a national recovery plan.
But, in December 2022, then acting finance department director-general Ismail Momoniat said in an affidavit that the municipality and its council had “actively and persistently” resisted compliance with the national intervention.
Momoniat’s affidavit was submitted in a court case involving the national government’s decision to withhold the municipality’s equitable share grant.
He pointed to the persistent financial crisis and the failures in service delivery.
Clark said despite a revised recovery plan, things had deteriorated further in 2023.
In the face of a dire financial crisis, the council unlawfully approved salary increases without consulting the team running the national intervention.
There are 16 respondents in the high court application, including four provincial entities, the National Council of Provinces, four national entities, including the president, four local government entities, municipal unions and Salga.
While three of the national entities are resisting the application, there seems to be universal agreement that the Enoch Mgijima municipality’s administration and council are failing.
The finance ministry is not opposing the application and says it will abide by the court’s decision but submitted an affidavit correcting “inaccuracies” in Enoch Mgijima mayor Madoda Papiyana’s affidavit.
Current finance director-general Duncan Pieterse said in an affidavit that the municipality displayed an “openly negative attitude” to the national intervention and the team deployed to assume responsibility to implement the recovery plan — designed to aid in addressing its dire financial straits.
On Thursday, it emerged in court that Salga had submitted last-minute papers opposing the application.
Judge Thandi Norman granted condonation for the late filing and ordered that Salga pay the wasted costs.
Norman postponed the matter to later this year to a date still to be agreed to by all the parties.
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