The Deputy President, Paul Mashatile, admitted in reply to a parliamentary question by the FF Plus in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) that government is failing to successfully execute interventions at municipalities in North West.
Mashatile attributes the unsuccessful government interventions to the fact that municipalities are characterised by “poor governance, a lack of institutional skills, poor financial management and political instability”.
He further admits that even drastic interventions, as determined by section 139 of the Constitution, bear very little fruit because “municipalities simply keep disregarding legal procedures and processes”.
Eight municipalities in North West have been under administration since 2021, in terms of section 139, but without any noticeable success. And in the meantime, the province’s municipalities keep decaying at an alarming rate.
It is striking that the Deputy President made no mention of any effective disciplinary or legal steps taken to restore accountability and good municipal governance in North West. He simply reiterated what everyone already knows.
As long as the ANC government keeps refusing to take decisive action against its deployed cadres in municipalities, the people of North West will bear the brunt of municipal decay.
The people of North West deserve better than the ANC.
