The Independent Democrats (ID) Parliamentary Leader Joe Mcgluwa calls on President Jacob Zuma and his Cabinet Ministers responsible for Performance Monitoring, Evaluation and Administration, Rural Development, Agriculture, Water, Environmental Affairs, Health and the current Co-Operative Governance Minister to provide the much needed support to struggling municipalities to prevent their total collapse.

This comes after weekend media reports indicate that 66 of the country's 278 municipalities are in financial distress and 37 others are headed in that direction following a National Treasury report.

‘It is shameful that nearly 40 percent of the country’s municipalities are facing financial meltdown,’ states Mr Mcgluwa.

 ‘Municipalities are the heartbeat of communities and it is of vital importance that the Department of Co-operative Governance take full responsibility of the current situation and carry out immediate remedial action to prevent a situation that could cripple our economy.

 ‘This situation is a clear indication of the consequences that the tax payer has to suffer due to the President delaying certain obligations that affects the municipalities as a whole, especially the delayed signing of the Municipal Systems Amendment Bill last year when the President took two months to sign the Bill after it was approved by Parliament,’ says Mcgluwa.

The provision in the Bill that states that political office may not be held by a municipal manager or manager directly accountable to a municipal manager, can be seen as an acknowledgement of the devastating effects of the ANC’s cadre deployment policy on service delivery.

 The axing of former Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka was a step in the right direction. The ID has made numerous calls on grounds of Shiceka’s apparent determination to use his executive office for personal gain, rather than fulfil his constitutional mandate and address the multitude of pressing issues facing local government.

‘The ID will pose questions to both the Treasury and the Department of Co-Operative Governance to determine the identity and detailed status of the municipalities said to be in financial distress and the corrective measures in place in this regard,’ Mcgluwa says.
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For media enquiries, contact Joe Mcgluwa on 084 213 38 11