The MEC for Finance in the North West, Keneetswe Mosenogi, announced the intervention during a special Madibeng council meeting, just a day after an attempt was made on the life of municipal manager Quiet Kgatla.
A Provincial Executive Representative (PER) and a multidisciplinary intervention team will now take over the municipality’s financial and council functions.
This includes, among other things, taking over all executive functions of the municipal council and the mayor necessary for the effective implementation of the financial recovery plan.
The PER will also assume all financial functions of the municipality, including analysing monthly bank and budget statements and issuing directives to the municipal manager regarding the management of the municipality’s bank accounts. In addition, the PER will assume the administrative functions of the municipal manager and approve the municipal manager’s decisions.
Freedom Front Plus councillor Elsa Lourens said the party noted the report but placed on record that Madibeng did not need yet another administration intervention, but rather for the ANC to be removed from municipal and provincial governance.
“The FF Plus is the only party that has consistently cautioned against and consequently rejected every unfunded budget tabled in council. We are constantly being placed under administration or subjected to interventions from the province, with no close-out reports or positive results and outcomes,” she said.
Erna Rossouw, Democratic Alliance councillor, said the DA had received the Province’s intervention report with mixed feelings.
“We feel it is once again being pushed through, like all reports involving the ANC. The MEC was unable to answer our questions regarding the duration of the administration,” she said.
“The fact that we had to learn that Madibeng’s budget is actually unfunded was yet another lie, especially after the Speaker assured us in Council that it was a funded budget. Madibeng has been placed under administration so many times, but over all these years there has never been a final report to implement. With only four months remaining before the election, it certainly makes one wonder what the real agenda is.”
