Most municipalities in the Eastern Cape are in chaos, a provincial government lekgotla (meeting) agreed on Tuesday, South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) radio news reported.
Provincial minister Sam Kwelita said participants agreed that the government needs to take action on the condition of municipalities.
He called for highly qualified municipal managers to be recruited to help bring stability and for close cooperation between government departments and municipalities.
Last year, a Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) study found that the province was home to five of South Africa’s 10 worst-performing municipalities in terms of eradicating poverty.
These municipalities also had the lowest human development index (HDI), which measures development and quality of life, assessing life expectancy, level of education and standard of living.
The HSRC’s Craig Schwabe said most areas in Transkei, particularly in the OR Tambo district municipality centred on Mthatha, were ”poverty islands” experiencing the strongest concentration of poverty in the country.
Schwabe said the government should bring in experts to do extensive research there to suggest how such communities could be lifted out of their ”world of perpetual hopelessness”, the SABC reported. — Sapa