Nelspruit warned about 2010

2008-01-14 20:15

Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane

Nelspruit - Mpumalanga's capital city has been warned that it may be placed under curatorship unless it gets its house in order.

When the executive council of the Mbombela local municipality held an emergency meeting on December 12 last year to see what progress had been made in addressing its internal problems, no progress report was available.

Candith Mashego-Dlamini, local government and housing MEC, has given the council until January 15 to give her an update.

"First I must say that this is not an investigation. The MEC has raised issues with the municipality, to which they must respond before deadline," said her spokesperson Simphiwe Kunene.

In terms of the Constitution, a municipal council can be relinquished of all or some of its administrative powers by being placed under an administrator until a new council has been appointed.

The African National Congress's provincial executive committee has expressed concern that Mbombela municipal council is fumbling preparations for the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

Big headaches

The council has failed to fill crucial empty posts for senior managers since last year, is lagging behind in spending its Municipal Infrastructure Grants (MIG) and has been unable to effectively manage its debt collection.

"The PEC took a decision at its last meeting that we can no longer run away from Mbombela's challenges. The council has been in the media for all the wrong reasons," said provincial ANC spokesperson Paul Mbenyane.

"We must acknowledge that it's not the media creating these problems, they do exist. It's just a question of whether there's a lack of political leadership or not."

Mbombela's biggest headache is a grassroots legal challenge spearheaded by one of South Africa's highest profile "rural justice" lawyers, Richard Spoor, who is questioning the municipality's ownership of the land on which it is building the province's R1bn 2010 stadium.

Mbombela insists it bought the land from the rural community of land beneficiaries for just R1.

The Matsafeni community has turned to the courts to dispute the deal, insisting that an illegal community structure fraudulently concluded the deal with the municipality in return for political rewards and the personal benefit of 'rogue' impostors.

Lavish party

The municipal official who negotiated the deal, 2010 co-ordinator Differ Mogale, was suspended and then fired for supposedly overstepping his authority.

He has since been reinstated and municipal manager Jacob Dladla is insisting that the land deal is legitimate.

In other controversies, consulting company Lefika had to explain how it spent R1.45m on a lavish party for the stadium, when far larger and better funded cities spent a fraction of the amount.

The Mbombela municipality faces a R65m shortfall in its budget to build the stadium.

- African Eye