INWENA is the Deputy President of the country, Mr. Paul Mashatile, on the problems facing Mpendle Municipality.
Mashatile said that he had not been informed about the problems facing this municipality and said that he would send a team to look at the existing problems.
“I had never heard of the problems facing Mpendle Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal. I will send a team to look at what is happening in this municipality. It is important that we do not leave rural municipalities out,” he said.
He said this while answering questions at the Council of Provinces in Parliament.
There are many problems in this municipality as recently a key council meeting was disrupted after a raid by businessmen who claimed they were owed money by the council. Businessmen entered the meeting with the doors, saying that the meeting will not continue until they receive their money.
This municipality is facing a financial problem as it has become common for employees not to be paid on time. The council’s mayor and speaker continued their work, despite being suspended by the interim leadership of the ANC in the province.
He said Mkhanyakude Municipality is part of 33 municipalities where the work to improve the situation is still ongoing.
“People in the villages feel as if the government has forgotten them. We will send a team to Mkhanyakude municipality to assess the situation of this municipality. We will cooperate with the province, we will not just go outside the province,” he said after it was complained that the people of Jozini are still drinking water and cows.
Mashatile also revealed that there are 162 municipalities in a bad financial situation in the country.
“We have to intervene in those municipalities because you find that the problems are about mismanagement of money. In other municipalities, you find that there are problems of poor cooperation of leaders, which are things that need to be fixed,” he said.
He said the Department of Cooperative Governance and Indigenous Affairs, and the Department of Treasury are charging those in municipalities who fail to do their job.
He lamented the lack of skilled workers in rural municipalities and said that those with experience prefer to work in urban municipalities.
“We need to look at employee benefits so that they are attracted to work in rural municipalities. That way we will be able to find people with skills and work experience,” said Mashatile.
On the issue of the team that will deal directly with the water problem in the country, he said that they intend to ensure that people get water.
“Municipalities have been ordered to fix the problem of water leakage. We are facing challenges related to water which has turned into a disaster, that is why a team has been assigned to deal directly with this problem.”
He went on to say that when there are problems with the supply of water to communities, the government must buy trucks that deliver water, instead of using the private sector.
“People are being exploited because of private companies that provide water through tanks. There is a report that we received that these private companies are destroying the water infrastructure, in order to get the job of transporting water.”
He said that they will invest resources to revive the transportation using buses.
He pointed out that they are improving the routes of Durban, Johannesburg, Queenstown, East London and Cape Town.