Bhisho considers administration takeover of Jansenville’s Ikwezi

THE Eastern Cape government is considering taking over the administration of the embattled Ikwezi Municipality in Jansenville.

The municipality is in such a financial mess that it is struggling to pay creditors, staff salaries or cover its debt.

Yesterday Local Government MEC Fikile Xasa said the situation was getting worse.

Although a last resort, Bhisho would place the municipality under administration (Section 139) if it believed interventions implemented were failing and the problems persisted.

The department has been supporting the municipality for more than eight months under Section 154 of the constitution.

“We are discussing Ikwezi and found out that the municipality had been unable to pay salaries for the past two months, and also are not paying dues to other parties,” Xasa said.

“I intend to go to the Sarah Baartman District Municipality next week to discuss the issues happening in that [Ikwezi] municipality.”

The Ikwezi Municipality is in the hub of South Africa’s mohair industry.

The national government is considering merging it with two other municipalities, Camdeboo in Graaff-Reinet and Baviaans in Willowmore.

Ikwezi mayor Sizwe Mngwevu said yesterday: “The major problem is the way our finances have been handled and the fact that we owe a lot of money to our creditors. We admit that we are at fault because of the way we handled our finances.”

The council suspended its chief financial officer, Daphney Sauls, last week, Mngwevu said.

Municipal manager Thembani Gutas was still on suspension since February last year, because of poor audit outcomes.

The municipality had received a disclaimer for the 2013-14 financial year and Xasa said a team of officials would further investigate all the problems.

“I may not say now that we will place the municipality under Section 139, as it involves a lot of consultation with all stakeholders, including the ANC,” he said.

“When you go to Section 139, it has a lot of implications for many people. We will need to engage the community as well.”

Xasa said the concern was that poor performing municipalities often expected to be bailed out by the provincial government.

“Some people think as the department we have money stashed somewhere to bail out municipalities that are poorly managed. That is not the case.

“If we intensify our intervention beyond Section 154, it means we need to invoke Section 139. I think, if all else fails, that is where we are going,” Xasa said.

‘ We admit that we are at fault because of the way we handled our finances