Pretoria - The Gauteng provincial government must take over the administration of the City of Tshwane due to failure by council to elect a mayor and ongoing political strife negatively affecting service delivery.
This was a view expressed by United Africans Transformation leader Abel Tau, who called for the provincial executive to invoke Section 139 of the Constitution and place Tshwane under provincial administration.
Tau said: “We have written to the Gauteng premier, Panyaza Lesufi and MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Mzi Khumalo requesting that they invoke Section 139 of the Constitution and place the City of Tshwane under provincial administration,” he said.
He said recent developments in the city had a negative impact on service delivery and affected Tshwane residents, who were also ratepayers.
“There are enough grounds for the provincial government to invoke this section which states that when a municipality cannot or does not fulfil an executive obligation in terms of the Constitution or legislation, the relevant provincial executive may intervene by taking any appropriate steps to ensure fulfilment of those obligations empowered by the Constitution,” Tau said.
He said the city had no executive mayor and MMCs and had failed to successfully conclude three council meetings consecutively.
“It received a damning report from the auditor-general; it is failing to manage the Eskom bill which is a reflection on the city’s finances and its inability to collect debt; the unsolicited Kratos bid and might fail to pass the adjustment budget by the set deadline of March 31,” he said.
He said the organisation made the same call late last month, which was in the interest of service delivery which has collapsed.
“The City of Tshwane has potholes everywhere, refuse collection is non-existent, residents of Hammanskraal are without clean water, as well as the intermittent water shortage. At this point, the provincial government is the only hope for the residents of Tshwane,” Tau said.
His call was made after acting local government MEC Faith Mazibuko asked council Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana to provide a comprehensive report as to the reasons why the municipal council had to date not elected an executive mayor. Mazibuko said she viewed the state of affairs in the city in a very serious light.
Pretoria News