By Lebone Rodah Mosima
Parliament’s Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Public Administration has called for stronger financial management, political accountability and improved service delivery following oversight visits to the troubled Impendle and Ngwathe local municipalities.
The committee raised concern over Impendle Local Municipality’s financial collapse, including a wage bill that exceeded the municipality’s equitable-share allocation, while warning that litigation and weak cooperation had hindered efforts to address Ngwathe Local Municipality’s governance and service-delivery failures.
Committee chairperson Mxolisi Kaunda said the experience in Ngwathe showed that disputes between municipalities, provincial governments and other stakeholders should be resolved through cooperation before court action was considered.
“While litigation remains a legitimate mechanism for resolving disputes, it should be regarded as a measure of last resort,” Kaunda said.
The committee said litigation had diverted limited municipal resources from service delivery into lengthy and expensive legal proceedings that did not directly benefit residents.
It said civil society organisations, businesses and community representatives had repeatedly offered to assist Ngwathe in addressing its challenges, but that some of those offers had been ignored.
The municipality was urged to work more closely with organisations and institutions willing to provide expertise and support, particularly where assistance was available at no cost.
The committee nevertheless welcomed reported progress in addressing some of Ngwathe’s longstanding problems, including improvements in water and sanitation services, uninterrupted electricity supply and the maintenance of roads and sanitation infrastructure.
It said the provincial administrator and former executive mayor had provided consistent accounts of the progress made since the provincial intervention began.
The committee said the improvements should be maintained to ensure lasting changes in service delivery for Ngwathe residents.
It also welcomed the appointment of key managers under Section 56 of the Municipal Systems Act, saying qualified and capable senior officials were essential to strengthening governance and meeting the municipality’s service-delivery obligations.
The administrator was urged to work closely with the newly appointed management team to consolidate the progress already made.
The committee also stressed the obligation of provincial and national governments to support municipalities under Section 154 of the Constitution.
Former councillors told the committee that the Free State provincial government had failed to provide sufficient support to Ngwathe.
The committee called on the province to strengthen its assistance to municipalities facing governance and service-delivery failures.
It also expressed disappointment that Free State Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements MEC Teboho Mokoena had not personally attended the oversight meeting to account for the provincial intervention and the implementation of the court order relating to Ngwathe.
Ngwathe has been subject to a court-ordered provincial intervention and the dissolution of its municipal council following prolonged governance, financial and service-delivery failures.
In Impendle, the committee warned that the municipality required an urgent and credible financial recovery plan supported by improved governance and measures to stimulate local economic activity.
“The municipality is in a state of despair, and without an urgent financial recovery plan anchored on good governance and inclusive economic development to ensure improved service delivery, the situation will continue to deteriorate,” Kaunda said.
The committee said the municipality’s organisational structure should be reviewed to ensure it was appropriate for its size, responsibilities and available financial resources.
It said it had been informed that Impendle’s salary bill amounted to R59 million during the 2024/25 financial year, compared with a projected equitable-share allocation of about R50 million.
The committee said the wage bill had therefore exceeded the municipality’s entire equitable-share allocation, severely restricting the funding available for service delivery.
“It is therefore not surprising that the municipality failed to pay salaries for April, May and June,” Kaunda said.
He said National Treasury’s decision to temporarily withhold part of the municipality’s equitable-share allocation was understandable because of weak governance, administrative failures and the non-payment of creditors, but warned that it would worsen the municipality’s immediate financial difficulties.
The committee said Impendle needed to develop and implement a sustainable financial recovery plan to stabilise its finances and ensure that essential services could be delivered.
It acknowledged that predominantly rural municipalities such as Impendle had limited capacity to generate their own revenue.
However, it said several government programmes and funding mechanisms were available to support rural development and that the municipality had not made sufficient use of those opportunities to stimulate economic growth.
The committee also criticised the political instability that left Impendle without an elected mayor for seven months, saying the prolonged leadership vacuum had weakened governance.
It said elected representatives had a constitutional duty to serve their communities and that failing to elect a mayor for such an extended period amounted to a serious neglect of that responsibility.
Concern was also raised over what the committee described as ineffective consequence management as unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure increased to more than R141 million.
The committee said disciplinary and corrective measures were necessary to hold responsible officials accountable and reverse the municipality’s decline.
The province-appointed administrator was also urged to work with local businesses and other stakeholders willing to support economic development.
The committee said stronger partnerships between the public and private sectors could help expand economic activity, increase municipal revenue and improve service delivery.
It will now deliberate on its findings before making recommendations to the National Council of Provinces on whether the provincial intervention in Impendle under Section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution should be supported.
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