The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Indigenous Affairs, Mr. Velenkosini Hlabisa, has promised that there are officials of the Thukela District Municipality who will be taken action on the issue of confiscation of the council’s bank account.
Hlabisa said that in order to properly resolve the issue of confiscation of the council’s account, some measures must be taken.
He said this while speaking at a meeting called to deliberate on the issue facing the council.
The bank account was seized last month, after the council defaulted on a loan from RASP Consulting.
The municipality owes RASP Consulting millions of rands as the work done by RASP in the council is worth R137 million.
Last year, the municipality entered into a settlement agreement with RASP Consulting following a court decision. The municipality failed to keep the agreement and caused the bank account to be seized.
The operation of the council has been disrupted due to the confiscation of the council’s account.
The trade unions Samwu and Imatu, urged Hlabisa to take action against those involved. Hlabisa agreed with the union leaders that there is definitely something that needs to be done.
“If we want the situation in the municipality to be corrected, there must be those who are taken action.”
Hlabisa stated that the council’s bank account will be returned soon, saying that they wrote a letter yesterday, where they gave the company that seized the council’s account to return the account within two days.
“We wrote the letter ordering the return of the council’s account and the middle money this morning (yesterday). This will give the municipality the opportunity to continue working. All the council’s programs that were suspended will continue to work normally. The municipality will be able to pay its debts and be able to pay the workers again. This will end the burden on the workers. We all know that workers cannot go to work if they are not paid.”
Hlabisa said the businessmen promised to help the council.
“We are grateful that the businessmen will support us with engineers. We have spoken with the council manager. We have agreed that there will be a meeting within seven days where this issue will be discussed.”
Hlabisa said that they will focus more on solving the water problem in the region, saying that the water problem is preventing the economy from growing in the region.