eThekwini mayor, Mxolisi Kaunda. File photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The Section 154 intervention in the troubled eThekwini Metro has been killed off by resistance from the city’s powerful ANC region, who opposed the attempts to appoint administrators to stabilise Durban’s finances and administration.
As a result, the three-member team, appointed by the KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Bongi Sithole-Moloi in May to assist the city, pulled out after only two months of work.
The intervention appears to have been allowed to die a quiet death due to both the refusal of the ANC region — and its councillors — to acknowledge the intervention team’s legitimacy and concerns from the governing party nationally over its terms of reference and the appointment process.
In May, Sithole-Moloi appointed former director general in the presidency Cassius Lubisi, former eThekwini city manager Mike Sutcliffe and Moses Kotane Institute chairperson Thandeka Ellenson in terms of Section 154 of the Constitution.
Sithole-Moloi made the intervention due to service delivery failures by the city — which the ANC runs via a coalition with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and National Freedom Party — after consultation between the ANC in the province and the party’s national leadership.
The team was meant to “support and assist” the city in running its finances and in dealing with procurement backlogs which saw it being forced to return a R100 million grant for housing provision earlier this year.
The ANC hoped that they would be able to build capacity in the city, which opposition parties want placed under full Section 139 administration due to service delivery failures and corruption.
However, the intervention never got off the ground, with the team restricting its activities to what sources associated with the process described as “diagnostic work” and throwing in the towel after two months on the job.
A special council meeting called to allow Sithole-Moloi to introduce the team to eThekwini councillors in June was collapsed on procedural grounds by opposition councillors working with the ANC caucus.
In July, eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda wrote to the department of co-operative governance (Cogta) and traditional affairs complaining about the manner in which the team was appointed and outlining concerns over the terms of reference and other issues.
At the time, Kaunda told council that while the intervention purported to make use of section 154, its terms of reference went far beyond the mandate to support and assist the city administration.
He said the administrators had been given powers contained in a section 139 intervention, which effectively allowed them to take over the role of the city’s management team, to run disciplinary hearings and to fire staff.
Several sources in the city, who asked not to be named, said that “political issues” had prevented the team from doing its work in identifying the obstacles to service delivery and putting in place systems to deal with them.
According to one source, the team “never met the ANC region or the MEC” and the lack of “political clarity” on its work meant that it was doomed to fail from day one.
“The team did about two months of intensive work, mainly diagnostics, but never went beyond that,” another source in the city told the Mail & Guardian this week.
“There was a lack of clarity about the role. People were concerned that the team would be conducting disciplinary hearings and bringing charges,” the source said.
“The mayor went to national to appeal the terms of reference, some of which were changed, but some weren’t. At that point, the team thought they should put things on hold and wait for political direction. That was around July,” the source said.
“There were too many other things going on politically. That’s where it is now. There hasn’t been any movement since then. The team felt they could not operate in an environment where there are all kinds of political tensions going on,” the source said.
A second source said there appeared to have been concerns on the part of the ANC nationally about the handling of the intervention by the province, which had requested that the National Working Committee ratify the decision on a political level.
“A couple of months back, national were looking at it, and there have been a number of interactions between them and the province over this. It is a bit of a mess,” the source said.
The source said a lack of clarity from Cogta on the role of the team from the outset — and the tensions — meant that it was doomed to fail.
“The biggest concern from the region was over the terms of reference. The team was meant to support and advise but there was never clarity and direction from the beginning about that,” the source said.
“The initial tension between the region and the province was the biggest obstacle from the beginning to this process. It has died now and everybody is getting on with other things,” the source said.
The fallout between the region and the province intensified in August, when the regional leadership was stripped of its oversight of its councillors deployed in the metro by the ANC provincial leadership.
Sutcliffe this week confirmed that the intervention was “on pause” but declined to comment further, referring the M&G to Lubisi and Cogta for comment.
“The chair of the support team has written to the province informing them that we have put the process on pause,” Sutcliffe said.
Lubisi said he was unable to comment as the team “no longer exists.”
“The team that I was initially supposed to lead to support eThekwini Metro in terms of Section 145 of the Constitution has not come into fruition due to reasons that can best be explained by the KwaZulu-Natal department of Cogta and eThekwini Metro,” Lubisi said.
“When this fell through, our team then became functus officio, and therefore no longer exists. I therefore cannot issue any statement.”
eThekwini head of communications Lindiwe Khuzwayo declined to comment.
“This is a Cogta process. They are best placed to comment,” Khuzwayo said.
Cogta spokesperson Siboniso Mngadi said that he did not have information about the process and undertook to respond in detail.
He had not done so at the time of writing.
The running of the city, which faces a disastrous festive season due to sewerage and water issues, is under the spotlight over the corruption charges laid by the Democratic Alliance (DA) against city manager Musa Mbhele and other officials’ failure to report theft of R17 million allocated for emergency housing.
DA chief whip Thabani Mthethwa laid charges against Mbhele, chief financial officer Sandile Mnguni and human settlements head Lawrence Pato this week, over R17 million for three housing projects paid to contractors who absconded.
However, Khuzwayo said this week that the city had reported the matter to the police last month on the instruction of its management team, led by Mbhele.
Mbhele has been at the centre of a number of controversies since his appointment and is being targeted by the ANC’s coalition partner, the EFF, for removal over poor performance.