eThekwini edging closer to being placed under administration

The eThekwini Municipality is edging closer to being placed under administration by the provincial government with the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs warning that governance in the municipality has deteriorated.

The KZN Cogta expressed concern on Wednesday that the state of the administration in the municipality wasn’t improving and that could lead to an “escalated intervention” by the provincial government.

The Mercury understands that a decision to place the City under administration would have to be approved by the provincial government if such a recommendation is made by Cogta MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi.

Sources close to Buthelezi said he was increasingly unhappy about the state of the municipality, and the lack of effort to deal with allegations of wrongdoing.

Asked if by “escalated intervention” Cogta meant placing the City under administration, an official at Cogta said:

“That is for the KwaZulu-Natal cabinet to decide. But, as Cogta, our assessment is that the governance situation in eThekwini has deteriorated.”

In a public statement by Cogta that signalled another low in the department’s relationship with the municipality, the MEC detailed his unhappiness with the metro, especially its failure to engage with him on the numerous letters he has written detailing allegations of fraud and corruption that have been reported by whistle-blowers.

He has written at least three such letters to mayor Cyril Xaba in the past two weeks.

“It is alarming that all correspondence directed to the mayor of eThekwini Municipality is never acknowledged, let alone responded to.

“The regressing trend of poor governance, lack of consequence management and maladministration is a cause for concern and may lead to a recommendation for escalated intervention from the provincial government,” said the letter.

Buthelezi also ordered the City to reverse its decision to suspend the deputy city manager (DCM) for Trading Services, Sibusiso Makhanya.

Makhanya was suspended by the executive committee on Friday following allegations that he had been neglectful in his duties and caused the City to incur fruitless and wasteful expenditure to the tune of R6.6million.

At the centre of this accusation is that Makhanya had failed to provide information that was needed to defend the municipality against a court case brought by one of its service providers.

The City owed the service provider more than R60m.

The service provider took the matter to court and the City failed to defend it, leading to a default judgment being handed down. It had to pay the amount owed and incurred an additional R6.6m in interest and legal fees. It is this additional amount that landed Makhanya in hot water.

The DCM, however, submitted a letter, pushing back against claims of dereliction of duty. The letter detailed the sequence of events which he said made it clear that he could not be held liable for any fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Buthelezi said Makhanya’s suspension by the executive committee was illegal and must be reversed within 72 hours.

“MEC Buthelezi has instructed eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba to ensure that the decision to suspend deputy city manager for Trading Services, Mr Makhanya, taken on 13 September 2024, is rescinded within 72 hours.

“The executive committee of a municipality is not empowered by law to suspend senior managers. It is only the council that has the discretion to suspend senior managers – and this function cannot be delegated to the executive committee.

“The purported precautionary suspension of Mr Makhanya is in violation of the Local Government: Disciplinary Regulations for Senior Managers 2010 and thus amounts to maladministration,” said the statement.

Mayoral spokesperson Mluleki Mntungwa had promised to respond but had not done so at the time of going to print.

DA councillor Thabani Mthethwa declined to comment on the public statement but expressed concern about the public exchanges between Cogta and the municipality.

“What is of serious concern is why would the spheres of government that are supposed to be interdependent communicate with each other through the media? We don’t believe that such an approach is healthy. Leaders in government must engage each other directly, not through the media,” said the DA councillor.

Democratic Liberal Congress (DLC) leader Patrick Pillay said it was unfortunate that Cogta had responded in a manner that threatened to place the City under administration without providing justifiable factual evidence of a total financial and governance collapse and weaknesses of the eThekwini council.

“If there has been a violation of due processes, this needs to be obviously corrected accordingly. The DLC is confident that mayor Cyril Xaba will act in the best interest of the city and its citizens in moving forward the matter of the suspended DCM,” Pillay said.

The Mercury