Cape Town - Deputy President David Mabuza warned that political infighting, poor governance and financial mismanagement has led to 64 municipalities being dysfunctional in the country.
In addition, out of the 64 dysfunctional municipalities 29 have been put under administration.
Mabuza said most of these were in KwaZulu-Natal with 10 dysfunctional municipalities followed by Mpumalanga with five and North West has two and Gauteng has two of these municipalities.
In the Western Cape, Northern Cape, Free State and Limpopo, Mabuza said each province had one dysfunctional municipality.
In the Eastern Cape there are three dysfunctional municipalities.
Out of three municipalities in the Eastern Cape is Enoch Mgijima municipality which has been criticised for building a shoddy stadium for R15 million.
The Lesseyton stadium is now under investigation by various entities.
The Hawks also launched an investigation into the stadium after complaints over the tender awarded for the construction of the facility.
Mabuza, who was replying to a written question in Parliament from the IFP, said action was taken to try and fix the dysfunctional municipalities.
There were a number of intervention measures being put in place.
“The Department of Co-operative of Governance has identified, through the 2021 State of Local Government Report, 64 municipalities as dysfunctional and needing urgent support.
“These high-risk municipalities are characterised by, among other things, political infighting, poor and weak decision-making, poor governance and financial management, lack of consequence management, poor collection of revenue, and poor response to service delivery complaints,” said Mabuza.
“Both national and provincial teams have already engaged all 64 dysfunctional municipalities, including the 29 which were placed under administration, to develop municipal support and intervention plans,” he said.
siyabonga.mkhwanazi@inl.co.za
Political Bureau