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Municipal crisis in the Eastern Cape continues unabated

- Cala University Students Association

CALUSA notes with concern that national and provincial government has failed to investigate the state of the Sakhisizwe Local Municipality

The Cala University Students Association (CALUSA) notes with great concern the failure of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to intervene in the affairs of the dysfunctional Sakhisizwe Municipality. In June 2022, CALUSA appealed to the Minister of Cooperative Governance to invoke section 139 of the Constitution by putting the Sakhisizwe Municipality under administration following the release of a report and recommendations by a Ministerial Task Team that investigated the state of the said Municipality.

The recommendations of the Task Team came about after CALUSA, through its legal representatives, the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS), approached the office of the Minister of Cooperative Governance in September 2020 to intervene in the affairs of the Sakhisizwe Local Municipality by inter alia dissolving the Municipal Council and, with the active participation of citizens, appointing an administrator. The request came after a clear collapse of delivery of services as evidenced by, among others, a lack of maintenance of roads, inconsistent access to clean drinking water, blocked drainage systems, unmanaged dumping of refuse, unfinished projects, etc.

In May 2022, the Minister released to CALUSA the report of the Task Team on the state of the Sakhisizwe Municipality. The team found that the Municipality was in a state of dysfunctionality and recommended that the MEC of COGTA intervene in the Municipality by:

  • issuing directives in terms of section 139(1)(a) of the Constitution to the Municipality to undertake specific actions that the Minister has identified as necessary to bring about stability in the Municipality,[1]
  • in the event the Municipality failed to implement the directives, the PEC in the Province to consider invoking a mandatory intervention in terms of section 139(5)(a) and (c) of the Constitution, and appoint a provincial representative to deal with all governance and financial challenges identified in the municipality;
  • considering the possible invocation of investigations in terms of section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act, for the purposes of conducting investigations regarding the alleged malpractices and malfeasances in the Municipality, including the possible payment of R4 million demanded by an employee through civil action.
  • providing support to the Municipality to mitigate against all identified challenges in the minister’s assessment, and providing a report as to how these are to be undertaken; and
  • informing the Minister of any alternative steps it intends to take or has already taken in this regard to assist the Municipality to overcome its shortcomings, given the outcome of the 2021 Local Government Elections.

CALUSA’s response to the report has largely been positive. However, we were and continue to be concerned that there were no timeframes for the implementation of the recommendations. More worrying is that after almost six months, our concerns expressed in June 2022 to the Minister regarding timeframes seem to have been ignored.

Our position is that the Sakhisizwe Municipality is, overall, still incapable of meeting its constitutional obligations to deliver basic services among other things. Whatever efforts are made are marginal. A few examples: The landfill site in Elliot is a health hazard as the litter is strewn everywhere. The Municipality fails to manage dumping in Elliot, as well as the drainage system in both Cala and Elliot, exposing residents to flooding. The street paving in Elliot intended to be finished in March is far from being finished and the municipality fails to ensure that the residents have access to reliable and safe water from sources. Above all, community participation in policy formulation and implementation is still a pipedream.

We thus call on the offices of the Minister and MEC to come up with a clear plan and strategy on how and when the recommendations of the Task Team will be implemented, not forgetting that civil society as the third leg of the municipality outside the administrators and politicians has a role to play. Community participation in the running of local government is a constitutional obligation to ensure the accountability of the politicians and administrators to their communities.

For comments and queries, contact:

From CALUSA:

From CALS:

[1] See the Ministerial Task Team’s Report on Sakhisizwe, with annexures: https://acrobat.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:688bc000-938e-3da4-8be9-f4805846aadc

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