Amathole District Municipality mayor Anele Ntsangani used the occasion of his state of the district address (Soda) on Friday to highlight significant changes in the ailing district since he came into office in 2022.
Ntsangani said they were now on a mission to take ADM to greater heights, after they inherited a rather dysfunctional municipality when he took over the reins.
“It is common knowledge that we inherited a municipality that had serious challenges of governance and service delivery.
“I am, however, proud to announce without any hesitation that we have a good story to tell, as we have made significant achievements in taking the municipality to greater heights,” he said.
On Friday, Ntsangani delivered his last state of the district address of the current term of governance at the Mzwandile Wilson Fanti Hall in Stutterheim.
He told the gathering that his once ailing district municipality, which had been placed under Section 139 intervention in 2021 by the provincial government for failing to fulfil its executive financial obligations, had now turned the corner.
Among those present, were representatives from the six local municipalities under ADM jurisdiction, the South African Local Government Association (Salga), traditional leadership and representatives from Amatola Water, among other stakeholders and members of the public.
Ntsangani took over after the ousting of then mayor Nceba Ndikinda, who was axed by the ANC together with council speaker Nondumiso Mgidlana and chief whip Nonceba Mfecane, amid allegations of defiance and bringing the party into disrepute.
“When we were ushered in as a new leadership of the municipality in August 2022, the employee morale was very low,” he said.
“Workers were on strike and as a result water was not supplied to most communities, resulting in community protests.
“We were summoned by the SA Human Rights Commission to account for violating the basic human right that is access to clean water.
“Systems were at a standstill as ICT was also sabotaged.”
At the time, a municipal manager was on suspension and a CFO was acting in that position.
“The CFO was the accounting officer which means effectively there was no CFO and no segregation of duties.
“Financial statements were not submitted to the auditor-general for the past five preceding years, while the municipality was moving between a disclaimer and adverse opinion.
“The revenue collection rate was at its all-time low at 28%, expenditure of conditional grants was less than 30%.
“As a result, unspent grants amounted to R90m, while we did not qualify for a rollover as we didn’t have a municipal manager.
“This challenge continued and affected the expenditure patterns, while our Amatola Water debt was not serviced for eight years.
“As a result, when we started servicing the debt, it was more than R300m, with our cost of employment (COE) shockingly high at almost 50%, as opposed to the norm of between 35% and 40%.
“There was also the issue of the exorbitant rent of R3m paid for office accommodation every month, with one of the alarming cost drivers being our municipal fleet.”
Ntsangani said, at the time, a panel of contractors was irregularly constituted, resulting in high irregular expenditure being incurred, while their development agency, Aspire, “was dysfunctional, operating with a board that no longer had a council mandate”.
All these shenanigans, Ntsangani said, led to the perpetual adoption of unfunded budgets and as a result, the national and provincial government invoked Section 139 of the constitution and a mandatory financial recovery plan to address these shortcomings.
“Within a period of four years, I can safely say we have stabilised the municipality, enabling it to focus on improving service delivery and good governance,” he said.
The ailing council has since managed to move to more cost-effective offices, saving more than 50% in rental, reduced the cost of employment to 38% and also managed to service the Amatola Water bill.
“We have for the first time in years adopted a balanced and funded budget,” Ntsangani said, adding that they were on track to move out of the financial recovery plan.
They would now focus on robust revenue collection, optimisation of the use of scarce resources, fiscal discipline, adoption and implementation of prudent fiscal policies, expenditure management, contract management and strategic infrastructure investment.
“During the past 12 months, we have laid a firm foundation for the realisation of these noble goals, by strengthening governance, improving financial management and robust strategic infrastructure investment.
“We intend to continue in this trajectory in the years ahead,” he said.
The district had also taken steps to strengthen security by hiring more security guards to safeguard water treatment works against vandalism.
Salga president Bheki Stofile told the Dispatch they were impressed with how the municipality had turned around from the “chaotic situation” it was in before.
He said this was a true reflection of the work they had done.
“What is only expected is to keep on focusing on the right things, so that the municipality can reach new heights of development,” Stofile said.
“At least you are seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.”
AmaXhosa King Ahlangene Sigcawu said it was a welcome relief that after years of having no water, there was a positive turnaround at ADM, resulting in many communities now having clean running water.
“Though there is still more to be done, it is much different to how it was before.
“We also see that dams are being built to bring water to people.”
Daily Dispatch
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