Jibe angers officials

A jibe over officials being incompetent did little to carry through the festive spirit at the first Executive Committee meeting of the year in Endumeni last Thursday.
Although Councillor Mfanafuthi Zwane was immediately asked to withdraw the comment after objections from Councillor Anthon Raubenheimer, it set the tone for a rather 'stony-faced' meeting.
The fact that minutes earlier Financial Manager, Ian Grisdale, had asked for a round of applause after a representative from the Auditor General's office had given the Municipality 'an unqualified audit' for the third year in a row, added to the irony of the meeting.
Councillor Zwane's criticism involved a media centre at Sithembile which he alleged had taken so 'long because of incompetent officials'.
Finance manager, Ian Grisdale, later told the Courier that the 'improvements to the Sithembile library had to be approved by council and funds accessed from Councillor Zwane's ward allocation.'
"It is just merely a process and one that has to be followed correctly according to the Municipal law," Mr Grisdale said. At the meeting, Councillor Raubenheimer objected to the term 'incompetence' with members of the public and media in the gallery. Mr Grisdale also objected to the comment.
Another 'hot topic', raised by former Mayor, Bongiwe Mbatha, was that of the Mayoral Games that took place in early January. She claimed that council had taken a decision not to continue with the games.
Mayor Thulani Mahaye said the executive council has delegated powers to 'over-turn whatever decisions (are) taken by the council.'
"The money used for the games was taken from the Mayoral Fund and there was no other way to postpone the games as preparations had already been done." Executive committee members Anthon Raubenheimer, and the Deputy Mayor Thandanani Mkhize supported Mayor Mahaye. Both rejected Councillor Zwane's call that 'they as individuals be responsible for the money spent on the games'. The Mayor told the council that he has a responsibility to promote the image of the municipality, therefore, when resolutions are taken 'surprises must be avoided.'
Councillor Mbatha took another swipe at officials 'for spending too much on consultants to do their jobs'.
"That money should be used for organising summer games for the youth." She was supported by Councillor Zwane.
The meeting continued on a rather rocky road with an emotional Councillor Makhaba complaining of the delay in the building of houses and the handing over of title deeds to those who live in State houses.
While the latter appears to be a Department of Housing function, the delays in housing have been blamed on the unavailability of water connections in the area that are the function of uThukela Water.
District Mayor, Rev James Mthethwa, said at a separate press conference that uThukela Water 'would be axed as a service provider in June'. Endumeni Councillor, JA Mfeka, who also serves on the Umzinyathi Council, confirmed this. Mayor Mahaye said Umzinyathi has set aside R20 million to upgrade the water network in Endumeni and hopefully this will solve the problem. Councillors were not happy to hear from technical manager, Bart Maltman that the State houses will only be built by 2015. There were also concerns that a resolution passed by the previous council to install solar geysers at RDP houses had not been implemented.

Back-pay for Councillors

The issue of the hiring of an LED (local economic development) manager was also placed on the table and acting municipal manager Percy Mabilisa explained that the manager would be available in due course and the progress will be given in the next meeting. Councillors were not to be happy about this explanation. They demanded that Mr Mabilisa must be specific with the date.
The only good news - as far as Councillors were concerned - is their 5% increase, back-paid from July 1 2011. This was paid in on July 25 after the MEC’s instant approval.
n Endumeni Municipality is 'one step away from being a clean audit' - the best an institution can received, said Jonathan Soobra