The KwaZulu-Natal Treasury has decided to pull out its financial experts who were deployed to help the ANC-run Umkhanyakude district municipality get its house in order.
The experts were deployed there to stabilise the municipality and get its finances in order, and leave.
However, the MEC for the provincial treasury, Francois Rodgers, has had enough of the uncooperative attitude of the staff of the cash-strapped municipality and resolved to recall his experts.
Staff unwilling to cooperate
In a letter addressed to Siphile Mdaka, the mayor of the district municipality, Rodgers said it was clear that the senior staff of the municipality was not willing to cooperate.
In some cases, the experts would drive from Pietermaritzburg to Mkhuze only for Umkhanyakude staff to cancel appointments in the evening, where they were already there or early in the morning.
Rodgers told Mdaka that the decision was taken in a bid to conserve provincial government resources. To also and apply them where it is possible to work freely in the spirit of building a capable and ethical state.
He added that this has resulted in fruitless and wasteful expenditure being incurred by KZN Provincial Treasury.
“Treasury has limited resources. And, in determining which municipalities to support; we require the Municipal Manager to commit to the initiative and to provide assurance that the Treasury teams will receive full cooperation. This clearly has not happened. And I have therefore instructed my team to withdraw from the municipality and reassign the resources to other municipalities that desperately require our support,” Rodgers said in the letter to Mdaka.
In talks to resolve matter
The district municipality is already engaged in a battle with the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CogTa). This after it resolved to reject its decision to place it under administration.
The MEC for CogTa, Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, told the municipality to cooperate with the new administrator, Bamba Ndwandwe. He said their action means that staff may not be paid their July 2025 salaries.
Conduct unacceptable
“The egregious conduct by the leadership of the uMkhanyakude District Municipality is deeply alarming. And it demonstrates a blatant disregard for established legal frameworks. This municipality is under administration by resolution of the Provincial Executive Council. The actions of the municipal leadership, effectively operating as a law unto themselves, are unconstitutional and unacceptable,” Buthelezi said.
