Durban — Murders in local government, oversight, accountability and the provision of basic services were some of the issues the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) addressed when MEC Sihle Zikalala met with the uMgungundlovu and Harry Gwala executive committee cluster at the Msunduzi town hall.
Earlier on Tuesday, MEC Zikalala met with the executive committee cluster days after holding a meeting with the mayors in Durban.
The executive committee is going to discuss the state of local government report and progress on municipal support and intervention plans, municipal audit action plans, audit war rooms and financial viability, MPAC oversight responsibilities and toolkit and the performance of grants and establishment of water war rooms.
Zikalala said that it was sad to start their engagements by reflecting on the killings of leaders in local government and traditional leadership.
Zikalala was referring to the assassination of three government representatives and Dr Dumisani Khumalo, a close confidante of King Misuzulu kaZwelithini, who was shot at his home in Bethany just outside Nongoma, in northern KZN on Saturday.
The MEC said that part of their work is to ensure that the structures responsible for oversight functions in municipalities are fully capacitated to perform this function effectively.
“It is not a secret that we come into these positions and we are expected to handle areas where we have no expertise. The truth is no one is born with the knowledge and expertise, it is all learnt along the way. This means that we have to be prepared to subject ourselves to the learning processes as quickly as possible so that we can be able to perform our duties competently. We cannot have fully functional and well-governed municipalities if there is no proper oversight,” Zikalala explained.
He said the money entrusted to public representatives even came from the poorest of the poor through the tax that they are subjected to.
“This alone demands that we treat this money with the utmost respect, but it also means that we have to be as transparent as possible with how this money is spent. Every cent has to be accounted for. This starts from the budgeting process; we must absolutely do away with the practice of unfunded budgets. We can’t keep planning to use money that we do not have,” Zikalala said.
He said that the audit process that is done on a yearly basis should not be taken lightly.
“We all need to commit ourselves to the highest standards of financial accountability. This means that all records of how the money is spent have to be kept. We also have a responsibility to ensure that issues that were raised as red flags in the previous audit cycles do not re-emerge in subsequent audits. What this forces us to do is to make sure that audit improvement plans are implemented and monitored so that mistakes are not repeated,” Zikalala said.
He encouraged all municipalities to take part in audit war rooms so that they can all demonstrate that they are willing to work hard to ensure that every cent is spent wisely and is accounted for as required.
Moving on to the provision of basic services, Zikalala said the growing number of public protests within our communities should give us a strong message that our communities are hungry for services. This refers to the whole suite of basic services from water, energy and refuse removal to grass-cutting.
“We have to move with speed to reverse the state of decay that we are seeing across our towns.
“We may also need to start inventing education and awareness programmes that will deter our communities from defacing our environment. While we do our part as the different spheres of government, let us also put measures in place to stop this revolving door! It is a fact that our towns do not litter themselves, just as our water pipes do not damage themselves!” Zikalala said.
Daily News