Premier defends intervening in crippled municipality

GAUTENG Premier David Makhura has moved to refute allegations that his tough stance on poor governance was aimed at targeting political opponents ahead of the ANC’s upcoming provincial conference.

Yesterday, Makhura – also acting ANC provincial chairperson – detailed reasons for his decision to place Emfuleni municipality in the Sedibeng region under administration, following persistent financial woes that crippled the municipality’s capacity to deliver services.

Makhura’s move saw Emfuleni mayor Jacob Khawe tendering his resignation, before the party’s provincial leadership asked him to reverse it and continue to serve.

The ANC Youth League has described the decision as part of attempts by Makhura to neutralise those he did not want to serve with ahead of the conference, during which he is set to be elected provincial chairperson.

The league is leading a grouping within the ANC which is pushing for Khawe to run against current provincial secretary Hope Papo, who is seeking re-election, while it wants former ANCYL provincial chairperson and current economic development MEC Lebogang Maile to become deputy chairperson.

Makhura said while he had confidence in Khawe as the mayor in the municipality, he had no choice but to intervene to ensure stability.

“ANC conferences come and go and we cannot sit and wait for them to deal with service delivery. I work on the basis that I am a premier of this province. If there is a problem in a municipality in Gauteng, leave out the politics of it. I cannot sit back,” he said.

“If that municipality collapses and then there are not services there, the communities then say I must explain that because I was afraid to intervene, as the constitution says the provincial government must do,” Makhura added.

Makhura said he was unfazed by those who called his decision to take over the control of the municipality “politically motivated”, adding that the ANC-led alliance in the region had welcomed his intervention in the municipality.

“I don’t want to worry about the conference. I have a job to do as the premier of Gauteng. I intervened there with clear conscience. This intervention was required, and I will do that anywhere in the Gauteng province, regardless of which party is governing, when I have to. We do not want to politicise service delivery,” Makhura said.

Makhura said since November 2015, the provincial treasury and the co-operative governance department had been working with the municipality with the aim of providing institutional support and helping to strengthen the municipality’s capacity to perform its functions, but things had worsened.

Despite the hard work by Khawe and the leadership in the municipality, the financial position of the municipality had deteriorated to a point where it was unable to provide basic services,” Makhura said.

“Simply stated, what started as a financial problem has now become a problem of service delivery,” Makhura said.

Emfuleni is one of the many municipalities which did not have an adequate revenue base to fund their budget, as they were located in financially distressed areas.

Eskom and Rand Water had sometimes switched off water and electricity supply in some areas of the municipality, as they demanded payment for their services.

Khawe could not be reached for comment yesterday.