There must be no room for corruption or nepotism in municipalities, Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel said on Thursday.
”We will arrest people. We will demonstrate as President Mbeki has demonstrated that we will not tolerate any hint of corruption in local government, not only local government but any sphere of government, and we want to ensure that nobody leaves here with any equivocation about that issue,” said Manuel.
Manuel and Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi were addressing provincial premiers, MECs and mayors at a meeting in Cape Town to discuss the way forward for Project Consolidate — the government’s programme of support for 136 municipalities in difficulties.
Manuel was referring to Government Gazette 27636, which prohibits elected officials or municipal employees from tendering for any contracts.
”Nobody’s going to benefit, nobody’s spouse is going to benefit. The rules are going to be clear and we will ensure that the incentives and disincentives are in place.”
On nepotism, Manuel said there was a need for clear human resources indicators from municipalities.
”No mayor should say I employed my brother as municipal manager. I trust him because he is of the same blood, of the same womb, therefore we shouldn’t have a failure. No, no, no. We must get the most capable people to run our municipalities.”
Manuel said Project Consolidate was about governance and learning points in relation to strengths and weaknesses, successes and failures.
He said that what is needed is to find an equilibrium between what a municipality can raise as revenue and what it can spend.
”It can’t first say let’s have an IDP [Integrated Development Plan], let’s spend. Now where does the money come from?”
”Minister Mufamadi is saying that things are calm. I wish I could share his confidence about the permanence of the calm. On a case-by-case basis we need to understand whether there is a tipping point and what the origin of that tipping point is…
”We only need five people and a pile of tyres, the rest will follow,” said Manuel in allusion to protests against perceived lack of service delivery in some provinces.
He cautioned municipalities against overspending and relying on provincial and central government as ”donors” to bail them out of a financial pickle.
”So governance doesn’t matter. That is fundamentally wrong and is unconstitutional and Project Consolidate is about ensuring that we don’t run ourselves into trouble,” he said. – Sapa