Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane has been called to act on a failing municipality that spent a mere 13% of its R123 million infrastructure budget and tried to hire a chief financial officer without academic qualifications.
Last month, the cooperative governance and traditional affairs department told the Alfred Nzo district municipality that the national government would withhold part of the more than R431.7 million municipal infrastructure grant for the 2024-25 financial year because of “persistent underspending”. The R123 million was the initial tranche of that money given to the municipality.
The letter stated that, should the local authority fail to improve its compliance in terms of section 17 of the Division of Revenue Act, the department would ask the treasury to approve a request to continue withholding infrastructure funding for up to 120 days.
The Act stipulates that a local government should spend at least 60% of its allocation to be eligible for the remaining tranche of the infrastructure grant.
The district municipality encompasses the Matatiele, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Umzimvubu and Ntabankulu local municipalities.
The letter added that Alfred Nzo had spent a paltry R16 million of the more than R123.1 million allocated to it, representing an expenditure of about 13%.
“The municipality will be required to submit invoices from suppliers [or] contractors after a verification is completed by the [national cooperative governance department] team,” wrote Ané Bruwer, the department’s chief director for the Eastern Cape local government operations and support, in a letter seen by the Mail & Guardian.
She added: “The municipality’s [municipal infrastructure grant] will be transferred based on the submitted invoices.”
In a response also seen by the M&G, Alfred Nzo admitted that it had spent just 13% of its budget but said its expenditure would be more than R82.2 million once the municipality received invoices for projects, representing 66% of the R123.1 million grant.
“Alfred Nzo district municipality is committed to improving spending targets towards meeting mid-year targets,” the municipality added, without elaborating on what projects would make up the deficit in infrastructure spend.
Wonga Potwana, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) leader in the district council, put the blame squarely on mayor Vukile Mhlelembana, calling on Mabuyane and Zolile Williams, the Eastern Cape MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs, to “recall” the mayor.
“The mayor is preoccupied with tenders while the municipality fails to spend its municipal infrastructure grant. What is so shocking is that this district has spent more than R10 million in a [legal] case where they want to get rid of Zamile Sikhundla, the municipal manager, after he inquired with the mayor about his alleged involvement in [municipal] tenders,” Potwana told the M&G.
“As the DA, we say that Vukile Mhlelembana must step down as the mayor because he has failed — he runs this municipality like it is a farm he owns. We call on MEC Williams and Premier Oscar Mabuyane to recall and act on this delinquent mayor.”
Williams’ spokesperson Pheello Oliphant said the department had “engaged” with the district municipality, adding that Alfred Nzo had cited “late procurements and litigations as the main reasons for delayed expenditure”.
“Cogta [cooperative governance and traditional affairs] understands that this [lack of spending] is clearly cause for concern as the municipality was below the set provincial RAS [risk adjusted strategy] target of 15% of the total allocation by the end of August 2024,” Oliphant said.
He added that the national department’s withholding of the infrastructure finance was more about “the grant financial management process than being a punitive measure, as the process allows the national transferring officer to transfer the second tranche any time during the month of October 2024 once the municipality spends 60% of the first tranche”.
Oliphant, however, did not detail how the municipality would fill the shortfall in infrastructure spending.
On the DA’s call for the mayor’s removal, the spokesperson said Williams did not have the “legal authority” to remove Mhlelembana unless he breached the code of conduct for councillors regulated by the national department of cooperative governance.
Meanwhile, Matatiele local municipality’s plans to appoint a chief financial officer, who did not have post-school academic qualifications, were scuppered by Williams.
The MEC, in a letter sent in June, stated that he could not approve the appointment of the executive, whose name is known to the M&G, because it did not comply with the Municipal Systems Act.
Oliphant confirmed that the appointment had been blocked, saying the “department noticed that the recommended candidate did not meet the minimum requirements for the job”.
He responded on behalf of the Eastern Cape government as questions were also sent to Mabuyane’s office.
Alfred Nzo’s performance has been repeatedly flagged by the auditor general, including a finding that the “performance management systems and related controls were not maintained” and there were “material misstatements” in the municipality’s financial reports.
Despite promises to respond to questions sent by the M&G on Monday, the municipality had not commented by the time of publication.
