MPs zone in on Makana
Stakeholders get to air issues
Makana Municipality needs its own “Zondo Commission”. That was one of the calls made to members of parliament during their visit to Makhanda last weekend.
Disrupted schooling, serious health hazards and the increasing difficulty of operating businesses in Makhanda were some of the consequences of Makana Municipality’s long-running dysfunction, the MPs were told.
Almost a decade after the municipality was put under administration for the first time, jaded community leaders pointed out that numerous interventions and interactions had failed to restore Makana and its economic engine, Makhanda, to a functional state.
This emerged during day two of a three-day visit focused on Makana Municipality by parliament’s Cooperative Governance Portfolio Committee.
The MPs arrived as Stage 6 loadshedding was announced for the nation and after parts of Makhanda had been without water for close to a week.
“We are coming here because there are a number of municipalities with repeat disclaimers across the country. How far can we allow this to go on?” the committee’s chairperson Fikile Xasa said at the start of a session where civic organisations and education and business stakeholders had been invited to present their concerns.
“If we say we don’t want this to go on, what has to be done?”
The answers from the stakeholders were unequivocal.
Makhanda Business Forum chairperson Richard Gaybba emphasised government’s role was to create an environment conducive to economic growth so businesses could create jobs.
Quoting verbatim from the Makana intervention plan drafted by then administrator Pam Yako, dated November 28 2014, Gaybba listed Makana’s challenges in infrastructure, governance, institutional and finance.
“Almost eight years later we are still discussing those same challenges,” Gaybba said. “All while under constitutional interventions.”
Makana has had one qualified and three successive disclaimer audits over the past four financial years. The 2021-22 audit noted “substantial harm and material irregularity findings. Unauthorised expenditure alone in 2020/21 amounted to more than R100m.”
Gaybba outlined multiple administrative interventions beginning with Yako in 2014 and several high-level delegations to Makana, including the 2021 roasting of officials and councillors by Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).
He noted five significant court cases against the municipality since 2015 related to: non-compliance at the landfill site; the municipal debt owed to Eskom and the threatened cut-off; the sanitation system and raw sewage spillages; and solid waste management.
In 2021, the UPM sought to dissolve the council in terms of Section 139c of the Constitution.
“In every one of these cases the court ordered adverse judgments,” Gaybba said. “In all but one case Makana has failed to comply fully with the orders granted.
“We are of the view that doing the same thing will produce the same results,” Gaybba said.
Ensuring Makana’s leadership was held accountable was key.
“Makana has so much going for it. This could truly be the jewel of the Eastern Cape,” Gaybba said.
“This resource is simply going to waste, primarily due to its dysfunction.” The Ethiopian Episcopal Church’s Archbishop Nkosinathi Ngesi urged MPs to establish a “Zondo Commission” to look into state capture at local government level.
“It will cost a lot but will ultimately save more,” he said.
National Arts Festival CEO Monica Newton, whose organisation hosted the event, said their constructive engagement with councillors and municipal officials was alive and well and that Makana was correctly prioritising township development.
Would heads finally roll? Talk of the Town asked Xasa in a one-onone interview.
“We will not tolerate these repeat disclaimers,” Xasa said. “And it’s not good enough to have someone just explain them.
“The Municipal Finance Management Act legislates specific responsibilities for municipal managers and chief financial officers.
“There are laws with clear consequences, and there will be consequences,” Xasa told Talk of the Town.