The Municipal Public Accounts (Mpac) committee, an oversight group made up o f12 councillors from various political parties made a sight visit to the Matlosana Local Municipality in the North West, and were not happy with the levels of service delivery.
The group said they are now interviewing different departments within the municipality for consequence management on projects that are critical for service delivery.
Their move follows the tabling of the annual report and public participation where problems relating to the municipality’s annual performance and financial viability were reviewed.
Mpac committee chairperson Mmateboho Mosiakwa, said they have reached the point where each department must appear and reply to the committee’s inquiries to address urgent and crucial issues.
She said that the committee was at a stage when many things needed to be changed as communities were starting to lose confidence in the government.
“The majority of those who voted for us expect us to correct as much as possible in this term. We are at a time where the city has even lost its dignity, therefore, we are reclaiming it,” she said.
The municipality still struggles with issues of ageing infrastructure, poor road conditions, and tendering processes that are largely controlled allegedly by gangs in the area.
Matlosana is one of the North West municipalities that got a letter from the Treasury to explain their failure to use millions of Rand in subsidies intended to aid with the delivery of essential services to the communities.
“We are not finding joy in most of the projects, let me say some of them are right but (these are ) very few. Most of them are encountering problems. We want to look back and say we have managed to save our municipality,” she said.
Municipal Manager Lesego Seametso admitted that Matlosana was in bad financial shape and that it needed a quick turnaround.
“When we are about to sweep clean, we need to go to all corners and actually lay bare and find our faults and deal with them accordingly. It’s starting and it just needs support and it just needs commitment,” she said.
