Central SA
DA in Mangaung scores departments – VIDEO─── LUCKY NKUYANE 15:01 Wed, 10 May 2023
The DA has scored four critical departments from the Bloemfontein-based Mangaung Metro Municipality the lowest.
The official opposition party in the ailing Metro on Wednesday held its report card briefing at its headquarters where it addressed varying issues besieging the metro.
Tabling his report during the briefing, DA member of the council David Masoeu scored these four departments, including the City’s Manager, the Chief Financial Officer, the National Intervention Team, and the economic and rural development departments a mere 1 out of 10.
Masoeu also scored departments like solid and waste, engineering, corporate services, councillor, and social services – all scored 2/10. Only two departments of Municipal Public Accounts Committees and planning scored 4 and 5 out of 10 respectively. The party lambasted the national intervention team and accused it of adding fire to chaos at the metro.
The metro has been under the national care of the government since 2019 when the national movement stripped off its borrowing powers, among others. In 2022 it was further put into a whole new level of administration by the government following its failures to rectify and resuscitate efforts to deliver adequate and mere basic service delivery to residents across the metro.
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During this press briefing in Bloemfontein, party and council members pulled no punches against the metro and its administration leaders. Council members Rossouw Botes and Dulandi Leech revealed that since the national intervention team took over in April 2022 the team cannot convince the residents in Mangaung of better services.
“If you investigate the following capital expenditure for the last nine months (July 2022 - March 2023) the performance on the capital projects can explain the story. After the approval of the adjusted budget of R1 309 633 345 the municipality only spent R431 695 582 till March 2023 (for nine months) and that is 32,96% of the budget,” says Botes and Leech.
In 2022, then National Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, described the troubled Bloemfontein-based Mangaung Metro as a “messed up” municipality.
