Joint action plan for Oudtshoorn

TODAY national and provincial government officials will reveal details of their joint intervention in the Oudtshoorn municipality.

Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs spokesperson Tsakani Baloyi said provincial and national government officials had agreed to jointly resolve the issues which resulted in the municipality not passing a budget for 2015/16, allegations of serious financial mismanagement and service delivery challenges.

Former Cape Winelands District Municipality manager Kamalasen Chetty has been nominated to take up the position of administrator of the municipality.

“The intervention is in terms of section 139(1) (b) of the constitution in the interests of good governance and effective services to its citizens. The appointed administrator will also be introduced to the officials before the media briefing,” Baloyi said.

James-Brent Styan, spokesperson for local government MEC Anton Bredell, said: “Progress has been made over the past two weeks. Local government has had a team there for two weeks to analyse the situation and lay the ground work. The main point of the intervention is to empower the council to manage its own affairs and do what they should have been doing.”

The administration team would also be introduced to the council staff. The municipality will be under administration for six months.

Last month, in announcing that Chetty would be the administrator, Oudtshoorn mayor Wessie van der Westhuizen said Chetty would be accountable to Bredell and present the MEC with a monthly report on progress.

Members of the council will also retain their current membership and salaries.

In a document signed by Bredell, it says Chetty will be supported by a team of officials, the identity and expertise of which Bredell will determine.

The document says Chetty should ensure the municipal council is enabled to take all and any decisions necessary for the restoration of its proper executive function.

The Oudtshoorn council passed a motion to accept a provincial government intervention to place the municipality under administration in July during a special council meeting.

The council also agreed to a rescue plan for Oudtshoorn proposed by Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan and Bredell.

Being placed under admin- istration is in addition adopting this rescue plan.

However, various issues continue to plague the embattled municipality and on Friday, longstanding DA member and Oudtshoorn councillor Pierre Nel resigned from both his party and the municipality.

Nel has been a controversial figure in the municipality after former DA member Peter Roberts claimed he was axed from the party after exposing Nel’s alleged attempt to write off R650 000 in legal debt without the municipality’s approval.

Nel said yesterday he resigned because of legal woes.

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The main point is to empower the council to manage its own affairs