Durban — EThekwini regional spokesperson Mlondi Mkhize has said that the ANC provincial leadership expects that the team to be deployed to intervene in the matters such as service delivery in eThekwini Municipality should assume their work with immediate effect.
Mkhize said the challenges that would delay the deployment are that the new financial year for the council begins in July, adding that their plan was to have them on board by the time the new financial year begins.
“We expect that by the time this new financial year starts they are able to come on board, so they are able to sort out the pending issues, and that the council should be able to perform its expected tasks after their interventions.”
Mkhize said they were not giving the team any time frames, but that they will be assessed on the positive outcomes of their work.
“Their work will be result-oriented. We would like them to know that when they leave, eThekwini’s fortunes will have been turned around, that its service delivery will be as it is expected to be, (rather) than it is now. In fact, the provincial government is interested in their productivity, and not about how long they take to support the city. We would like them to leave systems that are going to sustain the municipality.”
Mkhize reminded those who said the deployment of former eThekwini municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe was ill-founded that Sutcliffe had run the city previously and did exceptional work while still serving the council.
He then questioned their negativity, arguing that what they said was unwarranted, and a way of throwing the city into further turmoil.
“It is only a fraction of council employees who have charges pending against them, therefore to paint everyone with the same brush is uncalled for,” Mkhize said.
“To those who are busy calling for section 139 to have been implemented, I advise them to look at how the municipality qualifies to be put under section 139, or section 154, for that matter.”
He said that those who criticised the ANC’s cadre deployment policies were ill-advised, adding that in reality, all parties employ the policy when it comes to putting people in strategic positions. He said the ANC policies were transparent, unlike the other parties who do it but choose to sweep it under the carpet.
DA eThekwini leader Thabani Mthethwa said the support team should have been deployed a long time ago.
The DA had been calling for these interventions since last year, Mthethwa stressed.
He said that the DA would have wanted the deployment team to be part of the budgetary plans, and be fully participant in the new budget planning processes.
“In fact, we would have wanted that section 139, instead of 154, was implemented. But now we have to work with what we have,” Mthethwa said.
Responding to the deployment calls, IFP provincial chairperson Thami Ntuli said that the city of Durban was falling apart, and instead of putting it under total administration, the ANC had decided to implement section 154, which means only providing support.
“As the IFP, we say section 154 is not enough to put the affairs of eThekwini back on track. Instead, section 139, or a total dismantling of eThekwini council, should have been exercised as a corrective measure,” Ntuli stressed.
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995
Daily News