IFP 5

ANC 3

DA 2

ACDP 2

The Committee, having conducted such a review, will report to the House and forward such recommendations to the Kwazulu Natal provincial government.

There were factions and infighting amongst Councilors of the majority party, the Inkatha Freedom Party, which paralysed the functioning of Council.

The Provincial Exco received reports on these matters since May 2005, and thereafter periodically.

Minister Mufamadi also visited Abaqulusi in October 2005.

Item 4(2) of the Code of Conduct for Councillors provides that a Councilor who fails to attend 3 or more consecutive meetings must be removed from office. This is a peremptory provision.

On 2 November the MEC dissolved the Council, following a resolution of the Executive Council.

On 2 November the notification of the intervention in terms of Section 139(3) was served on the NCOP, by means of a fax.

This notice of dissolution is required by Section 139(3)(a)(ii) of the Constitution, from the MEC for Local Government, Housing and Traditional Affairs (KwaZulu-Natal).

On 17 November MEC Mabuyakhulu briefed the Select Committee on the background to the intervention.

The province has 61 Municipalities, of which 29 are being assisted under Project Consolidate The province has one Metropolitan Municipality (Ethekwini), 10 District Municipalities and 50 Local Municipalities.

Abaqulusi Local Municipality falls under the Zululand District Municipality.

The Abaqulusi Local Municipality is located on the western boundary and comprises approximately 30% of the District Municipality area.

Abaqulusi was constituted from the former entities:

Vryheid Transitional Local Council (TLC);

Louwsburg Local Council;

Part of the Abaqulusi and Usuthu Sub-regions, administered by the Zululand

Regional Council (ZRC); and eMondlo Town Committee, administered by Umsekele (Provincial Department).

Abaqulusi comprises of an urban and rural component. The urban sector includes the towns of Vryheid, Bhekuzulu, Louwsburg, Lakeside, Hlobane and eMondlo. The latter was administered by the Vryheid TLC, whereas the rural areas were administered by the Zululand Regional Council (ZRC).

The Vryheid TLC allocated its capital budget to address the total spectrum of development required within these urban areas as follows:

Allocate 30% of the capital budget for the development of economic and social infrastructure; and Allocate 70% of the capital budget for new infrastructure.

In the case of the ZRC its allocation was based on an equal distribution throughout its area of jurisdiction.

Abaqulusi consists of 20 wards with 17 Councillors and falls under the Zululand District Municipalitv, located in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. Its area is now roughly 200 times the size of the original area administered by the former Vryheid TLC, the largest part of which is rural and underdeveloped.

The municipality is an executive committee and ward committee type. The Council consists of a total of 39 councillors, 20 of whom are ward councillors and the remainder are PR councillors, 11 councillors are females. There is a staff compliment of 452.

Abaqulusi includes the former Vryheid TLC, Louwsburg Local Council, eMondlo Town Committee and parts of the Abaqulusi and Usuthu Sub-regions. The Abaqulusi Municipal area is approximately 3 960km2 in extent and includes the following main settlement concentrations:

Vryheid with its central business district and surrounding residential area together with its former black township Bhekuzulu;

Louwsburg, an independent settlement area some 67km north-east of Vryheid and at the entrance to the Ithala Game Reserve;

Hlobane, Coronation and other similar mining settlements 25km to the north of Vryheid;

eMondlo and the surrounding Tribal Area to the south-west of Vryheid; Khambi Tribal Area and surrounding settlements in the north-eastern part of the Municipal area;

GIuckstadt and surrounding settlements in the eastern part of the Municipal area; Boschhoek and surrounding settlements in the central part of the Municipal area; and A number of rural settlement areas around Brakfontein.

• The Council was operating well
• The intervention by the MEC was politically driven
• The Council budget 2005/2006 was passed within the MEMA's specified period although after the intervention by the MEC
• The Municipality was listed among those Councils which were under the Municipal Assistance Program
• The records of Council reflects one Mayor who was paid and that the problem was caused by the Court which ordered that a Councillor who was no more a Mayor to be reinstated
• The unauthorized use of Council vehicle by former Mayor, Mrs E. J S Moolman, was considered by Council and finalized. Her report was accepted because she was attending to Council business to hand-over a cheque for the development to the needy community and the only problem was that it was assumed that she knew that the other meeting at KwaGwebu was an IFP meeting
• The non-attendance of meeting by certain Councillors was considered by the Council and it was reported to the MEC who did not respond to that effect Why the Council was dissolved if it was faced with administrative problems because there is Municipal Assistance Program to cater for such problems
• The MEC's intervention had crippled development in rural areas because Councillors are no more assisting needy communities
• The Municipal Manager wanted to be the Mayor
• The Municipal Manager was supposed to communicate with the Councillors
• of their non-delivery of services, but that was not done by the Municipal
• Manager
• The MEC ignored the Commission's recommendation not to dissolve the
• Council
• The MEC did not give the dismissed Councilors the opportunity to appeal for not attending three consecutive meetings
• The Municipal Manager did not accept the recommendation that the election of the Speaker should happen

The representative Councilors from the other political parties all supported the intervention Their reasons for supporting the intervention are as follow:

• Council could not operate as a result of the in fighting between IFP Councilors
• Opposition Councilors were out-voted where unlawful decisions were taken
• Letters were written to the to the MEC, requesting his intervention
• The DA was in favour of the Administrator taking over responsibilities and functions of the Speaker and EXCO including that of the Mayor but advised that the Administrator work with the remaining councilors in an advisory capacity
• The Municipal Manager reported alt the unlawful activities which took place at the Council to the MEC
• The Bhekuzulu, Vryheid and eMondlo communities hosted several marches with regard to the dissatisfaction with the non-delivery of services but these were covered-up by the ruling party
• The unauthorized use of the Council vehicle, unauthorized opening of water at Hlobane and the use of Council resources to fund the IFP activities
• The indigent support was not utilized accordingly as applications were filled by the applicants but Council did not process them
• There is no development in rural communities, no water and sanitation
• Councilors did not understand their roles in their communities
• Few ward committees were fully established

There were 7 properly constituted committees represented in the meeting. These 7 ward committees were in favour of the intervention. Of the 13 wards, representatives were appointed in the meeting Two ward representatives abstained from presenting their views about the intervention.

Those ward committees in favour of the intervention felt so because:

Those ward representatives not favouring the intervention, felt so because:

There were 6 representatives who spoke on behalf of business. Of the 6 representatives, 4 representatives were in favour of the intervention by the MEC and 2 representatives were not in favour. The business representatives argued that they pay tanffs but do not receive services and small businesses do not get tenders. The two representatives indicated that nothing has improved since the intervention.

There were 4 representatives that spoke on behalf of the Civic Structures, with 3 representatives supporting the intervention and 1 representative not supporting the intervention. The representative not supporting the intervention felt that the MEC should have interviewed each Councilor before making a decision. The three representatives indicated that several marches were held to complain about poor service delivery. There are service delivery backlogs but Councilors do not report back to communities.

There is no service delivery, roads, water and old people's electricity's accounts are cut off. The MEC delayed to take decision to dissolve the Council.

SANCO supported the intervention. SANCO made the following presentation. SANCO has since 2000 indicated that they were against the tariffs charged by the Council of 120%, but got no response from Council. Signatures of eMondlo, and Bhekuzulu communities complaining about the failure by AbaQulusi Municipality to deliver services were submitted

He supported the intervention by the MEC.

The Municipal Manager reported that it was difficult to operate with the Council and that he recommended to the MEC to either consider a general intervention or a specific intervention. He referred to the irregular expenditure referred to by the MEC and the aspect of Councillors giving instructions to the official against the Municipal

• Giving direct instructions to employees
• Those employees were faced with disciplinary enquiries as a result of those instructions e.g. one employee was involved in an accident while driving for a Councillor and that employee was forced to pay for the damages.
• A Councilor Attacked an employee and the Speaker's findings were that that Councillor was not guilty and given a warning
• Unions wrote several letters requesting a meeting to resolve employees problems and training needs of employees
• Employees were not treated well and politics played an important role on decision-making
• Some employees were employed without following the right procedures
• Expelled Councilors were invited to a meeting to resolve problems but they did not attend
• Employees did not have job descriptions
• Political appointments were made
• Councilors that had an interest in certain posts, recused Union representative on the panel

• Several marches were held by SAMWU employees complaining about their problems within the Council, including employment of employees which they were not happy with
• People from outside the Vryheid area was employed in vacant positions
• Unions are not involved in the IDP process
• The Local Labour Forum was operating before the chaos started
• The Corporate Services Manager is part of the employment corruption
• Nepotism played an important role when employing people

The team did not have much time to sufficiently deal with the issue due to some internal weaknesses of the National Council of Provinces and this affected the organization of meetings in the municipality. Only 7 ward committees were operating and were properly constituted, therefore the evidence presented by the ward representatives (appointed in the meeting), cannot be taken as evidence against the wards that were properly constituted. The views of the ward committees should be disregarded as the properly constituted structures in the area are in the minority i.e. 7 out of the 20 wards. The overwhelming majority of stakeholders met by the delegation supports the intervention with the exception of the ruling party in that Council and a civic movement. The administration was interfered with, thereby undermining it from doing its duties. Some public representatives assaulted some employees with impunity from Council. Councilors instructed officials without due regard to the protocol of communicating with the administration through the Municipal Manager. The laws of Council were disregarded when EXCO wanted to take decisions in conflict with stipulated legislation, thereby undermining the pledge that Council will uphold the Constitution of the Republic and the law of the Constitution at all times. The irregular expenditure was undertaken by EXCO without due regard to the MFMA. The in-fighting within the local ruling party affected the function of the administration and caused serious problems. The payment of more councilors than required by Council lead to fruitless expenditure. The ruling party showed no remorse during the discussions.

Report to be considered

Signed by Chairperson

Date: 13 December 2005