The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) chairperson of the Select Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, China Dodovu has raised concerns about dysfunctional municipalities in the North West.
Dodovu made the remarks on the sidelines of Premier Bushy Maape’s State of the Province address (SOPA) yesterday.
He cited political conflicts as one of the reasons for having collapsed municipalities.
“There are political challenges facing municipalities, councils are not functioning as they should. There are party differences within the municipalities and that affects how they must achieve the developmental objectives of our society.
“There are problems of governance, administration, the filling of vacant positions, especially key positions with the municipalities. There are generally problems of service delivery in the municipalities,” Dodovu said.
He said residents are the ones who suffer the brunt of municipal instabilities, which result in a lack of service delivery.
“I have seen reports of people protesting because of lack of water provision. The roads across the province have potholes. Municipalities are failing the residents, it is important for municipalities to deliver services. They must also sort out issues of finances, which are very key. I really believe the province has got a very long way to go in terms of attending to those particular issues,” he said.
Dodovu said there are 43 municipalities in South Africa that are in a crisis state, and 12 of them are in the North West province while calling on North West Premier, Bushy Maape to lead the fight against corruption.
“Yes the Premier touched on issues of corruption, but I suggest that he must lead from the front. While I was still the chairperson of the ad-hoc committee deployed to the North West, the law enforcement agencies were investigating about 95 cases of corruption. People want to see action taken. They want to see people arrested and prosecuted by the authorities. And it must start at the top of the political level,” he said.
