Government has expressed shock over the provincial cabinet’s decision to place three municipalities under interim administration at the same time.

This came after the provincial executive council (Exco) pronounced last week that Ditsobotla, Maquassi Hills and Matlosana local municipalities would be placed under administration in terms of Section 139 (1) (b) of the Constitution. Exco indicated that the three municipalities were on the brink of collapse and had failed to render services to residents.

The committee said the local government department was to blame for the problems bedeviling municipalities in the province and that problems at the municipalities were a microcosm of what was happening in the local government department.

Committee chairperson Auchalie Mothupi said their recent interactions with municipalities had shown them a picture contrary to what Exco and the department wanted to present.

“The local government department has failed to present its annual report for 2012/13 in time yet we are in a new financial year now. The department also failed to implement its annual report adopted by the legislature. How do we expect to see municipalities functioning properly when the department is in chaos?” he said.

Mothupi said the Matlosana local municipality was the only one that had tabled its annual report to the legislature. “It has honoured its financial obligations to pay outstanding debt of Eskom and Midvaal and they continue to render basic services to the communities and yet they are placed under administration. The move smacks of serious contradictions as there is no consistency,” he said.

He added that there was a high vacancy rate at senior management level at most municipalities.

“This has been happening for years yet the department failed to monitor this. We will call the department to a special meeting to discuss this Section 139 issue as it is urgent,” he said.

The 2011/12 Auditor General’s report showed that no municipality in North West had attained a clean audit. Only four managed unqualified opinions with findings, three had qualified opinions while the rest were disclaimers. Matlosana and Maquassi Hills received disclaimers while the audit for Ditsobotlha had not yet been finalised.

Some committee members said the move to invoke Section 139 was not sincere because other municipalities had repeated disclaimers spanning over five years but were left out.

“The fact that the committee was not consulted in reaching this decision renders the whole thing a farce. The department will have to explain itself,” one member said.

Meanwhile, the department is set to effect interim administration on the three municipalities today.

For more http://www.thenewage.co.za