Two more are set to come to an end in October. This is according to the Head of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), who last week informed Members of Parliament (MPs) during the National Council of Provinces' (NCOP) oversight visit at the Free State Legislature, sitting in the Fourth Raadsaal in Bloemfontein. 

During this sitting, Duma told the MPs that only one manager was eligible in terms of the legislation governing municipalities. He said at least two were ineligible, with one having legal matters clouding her head. 

OFM News previously reported that National Treasury has reportedly told the cash-strapped Metro to reduce the number of its heads of departments (HODs).

According to the mayor, Mxolisi Siyonzana, during an ordinary council meeting on Wednesday last week, National Treasury requested that HODs be reduced from nine to seven.

The ailing municipality, which has been under administration since December 2019 for failure to perform its basic function of service delivery, is also yet to appoint a permanent Municipal Manager (MM) or City Manager (CM).

Also read: Treasury tells cash-strapped Mangaung to reduce HODs

The metro was under scrutiny during the five-day oversight visit by permanent delegates of the NCOP last week.

Members of opposition parties were left fuming with the Metro Municipality's officials.

The Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) Member of Parliament (MP), Adriaan Petrus de Bruyn, was furious with the metro after its officials failed to attend the site visits at two water treatment plants in Wepener and Dewetsdorp.

“As we all know, the state of Mangaung is in chaos financially and with regards to service delivery. And as I've said earlier, I feel it’s arrogant of Mangaung to not even show up to the site visits or, or [even come late]. It just shows the arrogance. It shows that they have no political will to solve these problems,” he added.

He told the Free State's permanent delegate to the NCOP, Itumeleng Ntsube, who was chairing the oversight visits, that harsh measures should be taken against the troubled Metro.

The DA MP, George Michalakis, says the Metro has shown serious disrespect to the committee and must be dealt with.

"We do these oversights quite often and some of the things we saw were not surprising. We know the state of these municipalities in the province, but what we are disappointed with, is that Mangaung had a complete disregard for Parliament. They came to apologise and said it won’t happen again, but quite frankly, this is the second time it's happening. They disrespected Parliament last week as well, so that’s quite concerning,” he added.

Also read: MPs fuming because of disrespectful Mangaung officials

OFM News