Hon chairperson of the Council, hon members, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure this afternoon to present the statement of the intervention on Amahlathi Local Municipality issued in terms of section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. The Select Committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, having regarded the notice of intervention invoked in Richmond at the Amahlathi Local Municipality in terms of section 139(1)and (5) of the Constitution embarked on an in loco inspection visit of the municipality on 15 August 2019.
The multiparty delegation of the select committee interacted with the MEC responsible for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Cogta, in the province, the different stakeholders as well as the administrator appointed by the department, to speed up implementation of the approved turnaround plan for the overall improvement of its state of performance and compliance.
The department as well as the representatives of the internal and the external stakeholders within the municipality tabled and presented their opinions and views on the invocation of the intervention. The MEC reflected on the current state of the intervention in the municipality, briefly focusing on the challenges and the disfunctionality of the municipality, the investigative work
conducted by the department to discover more about the extent of this disfunctionality.
He also presented the protest and the violence in the municipality, the developments and changes in the political leadership, the executive failures of the council, as well as the matters that led to the invocation of the section 139(1)(b). In summary, Amahlathi Local Municipality started experiencing upheavals and disruption in service delivery as from 2 March 2017 due to a stand-off between the workers and the leadership of the municipality.
The key issues that led to the stand-off between the employer and the employees, was due to a serious of disagreements resulted from the unfulfilled obligation in the implementation of the standardisation process involving correcting disparities that existed in the task grades of the workers. This tension resulted in unstable municipal environment and affected delivery of services to the local community, which is the mandate and the whole of every municipality in South Africa.
It further led to the closure of the national road that is N6 passing through the town, through barricades and the burning of tyres. Subsequent to a petition submitted to the EMC demanding
answers on the progress made on a series of demands, the Department of Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs assembled a task team of officials to scope the allegations and concerns.
Emanating from the scoping exercise, the MEC liaised with the local political leadership, management and organised labour in the municipality with the view to assist the municipality in developing a work process plan for approval by the council. A necessary step towards addressing issues in the petition has been raised by the community. Concerning the investigations conducted by the department itself, the processes of interrogating the complaints in the department discovered that, yes indeed; the municipality was unable to fulfil its statutory obligations.
Additionally, there were evident signs of maladministration, fraud, corruption and other serious malpractices occurring. This culminated in the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in the Eastern Cape, initiating the forensic investigation into the affairs of the municipality and the National Treasury assisted it. On 22 June 2018 the MEC tabled the investigating report to the municipal council outlining its findings and recommendations.
For reasons still unknown, the municipal council ignored the report in its entirety and its recommendations were never implemented. The blatant disregard of the report and the continue flouting of various legal processes in performing municipal work, resulted in protests and demonstrations by the entire community which led into service delivery disruptions and the burning of municipal offices, the community services as well as the clinic.
The problems of Amahlathi Local Municipality are best summed up by its Mayor when she said and I quote: "We move from Vuna Awards to Vutha Awards, from clean audits to clean banking accounts because we are now bankrupt." The select committee, having regard to compliance with procedural and constitutional matters relating to the intervention at Amahlathi Local Municipality recommends as follows to the House:
That the NCOP approves the intervention in Amahlathi Local Municipality in terms of section 139(1)(b) and (5) of the Constitution; that the Eastern Cape MEC for Cogta should table the department's investigation report, the implementation plan and the forensic investigation report in terms of section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act and after tabling it, he must present it to this Council.
In respect of those Councillors who are not attending Council meetings, the speaker of the municipality should enforce the code of conduct for Councillors contained in the Municipal Systems Act to ensure the accountability; that the administrator should fastrack the process of reviewing the reversal of standardisation process as stipulated in his terms of references and also review the organisational structure and future packages of middle management and supervisors.
The MEC of Cogta in the Eastern Cape should facilitate the process of sharing with all internal and external stakeholders of the municipality this report of the select committee immediately after, sorry, he must share with all the stakeholders both internally and externally in the municipality and thereafter submit that report to this Council; that the Select Committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in co- operation with the relevant portfolio committee in the Eastern Cape Legislature should after termination of the intervention conduct a follow- up oversight to the municipality in order to evaluate the impact of the intervention in accordance with the terms of reference of the administrator.
Lastly hon Chair, the political issues especially divisions and factions among Councillors are the major cause of the problems of
the Amahlathi Local Municipality and as such, they must be attended to especially by the Ruling Party. Thank you very much.
Debate concluded.
Question put: That the Report be adopted.
[Take in from Minutes.]
Report accordingly adopted in accordance with section 65 of the Constitution.