Administration of Tshwane 'leaves much to be desired'

The administration of Tshwane Metro Council leaves much to be desired. These were the scathing words of Co-operative and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka as he described the city as one of the "most vulnerable municipalities" in Gauteng.

While the minister did not give specific details during his attack on the city administration run by mayor Dr Gwen Ramokgopa, residents know too well of:

# The poor administration over the billing system;

# The regular waste removal strikes which lead to rubbish piling up in the city centre, suburbs and townships;

# The ongoing ANC political in-fighting within the council which recently led to the reshuffling of the mayoral committee and culminated in the appointment of former mayor Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa as speaker;

# Inability to pay bulk water and electricity suppliers millions of rands;

# The debacle over the release of the Mosoma Committee report into the fire at the council-owned Kruger Park flats in which the mayor refused to accept responsibility and instead blamed "arsonists"; and

# The controversy over the suspension of city manager Kiba Kekana.

Responding to questions during a media briefing in Pretoria yesterday, Shiceka cited the municipality's problems with its billing system and the suspension of Kekana.

He said it was disturbing that Tshwane, as the country's capital city, was encountering problems with its billing system.

He said in August last year that the municipality, which is one of the country's six largest, could be placed under administration. It is in a cash crisis, with a R700 million shortfall. "The municipality's debt will be managed at a national level and so will those of other municipalities throughout the country," he said at the time.

It emerged at the time that the municipality could not pay its bills for bulk services. It owed Rand Water R65m and Eskom R495m at that time.

Though Shiceka did not touch on these issues yesterday, the municipality has recently been in the news over rubbish removal problems and the late release of the Mosoma report into the Kruger Park fire.

Attempts to get comment from mayoral spokeswoman Tiny Mokoena last night were unsuccessful.

Shiceka said government had introduced a turn-around strategy to assist Tshwane and other vulnerable municipalities which include Moretele, Nokeng tsa Taemane (Cullinan/Rayton), Vaal and Balfour.

Turning to the recent service delivery protests, Shiceka said some of the issues raised by protesting residents had previously been raised with government.

"People have been complaining about issues. They have sent memorandums and you will find that government has been lethargic," he said.

Shiceka said they had set up rapid response teams to respond to service delivery problems in the various municipalities. "We are not saying we will (have) a solution within two days. We will look at what issues have been raised and respond to them," he said.

Shiceka said the department had introduced a "multi-pronged local government intervention strategy to turn the tide on service delivery protests".

The first phase of the strategy saw provincial support teams undertaking visits to identify two of the most vulnerable municipalities in each province, which required urgent assistance from government.

The second phase, which runs from next Wednesday (March 10) to April 30, will see the roll-out of municipal turn-around strategies for priority/targeted municipalities, as well as the completion of municipal turn-around strategies for all 283 municipalities in the country.

Deputy Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Yunus Carrim said it was important that residents took co-responsibility of government's turn-around strategy. "This will reduce service delivery protests," said Carrim.

He said government was not opposed to service delivery protests but was opposed to the violent nature of the protests. "Municipalities should actually consult residents and other stakeholders on projects taking place," said Carrim.

Pretoria News

"It leaves much to be desired and it also shows that all is not well when the city manager is suspended," he said.

Kekana is currently on suspension and the municipality has appointed former TRC member Dumisa Ntsebeza to head a team to probe allegations against Kekana.

This is the second time that Shiceka has been critical of the Tshwane administration.

Posted at 10:00AM Mar 05, 2010 by Editor in Market  |  Comments[3]