/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

ActionSA has written to the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Minister, Velenkosini Hlabisa, requesting urgent intervention in the Matatiele Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape, where it has become apparent that a syndicate, hellbent on turning the local municipality into a feeding trough, has degenerated it into a hotbed of organised corruption plagued by service delivery failures. 

In the latest episode of the municipality’s slide into a mafia state, the Mayor, in an act of what can only be described as brazen intimidation, trotted around the municipal offices with heavily armed men. Coincidentally or not, this occurred on the very same day the municipality awarded a R68-million disputed security services contract to Sibakhulu Trading (Pty) Ltd, despite an ongoing High Court application to interdict the awarding of the contract.

ActionSA is aware of various reports that precede this latest affront, showcasing a litany of concerns raised about the misuse of municipal funds, irregular tender awarding, and, most impactful on residents of the municipality, the collapse of service delivery as a consequence of failed leadership.

Evidently preoccupied with indulging themselves in luxuries afforded by the alleged misuse of taxpayers' money, the Mayor and municipal officials have presided over the breakdown of service delivery in the municipality, where residents' longstanding complaints about a lack of clean drinking water and infrastructure maintenance failures have largely fallen on deaf ears.

ActionSA believes that with the municipality’s descent into a mafia state, neither the Provincial Government, CoGTA, nor Parliament can stand idly by while politicians and officials, who are meant to serve the interests of residents, act in contempt of the rule of law and the constitutional provisions established to improve and not undermine the living conditions of citizens through effective service delivery. 

In full recognition of the urgency to restore the integrity of governance and service delivery in Matatiele Local Municipality, ActionSA calls on Minister Hlabisa to immediately take action to hold accountable the Mayor, the Council, and any municipal officials found to have acted outside their mandate and against the interests of the residents.

ActionSA believes that while the immediate responsibility to address this governance crisis, which is not unique to this municipality alone, lies with the Government, the ultimate responsibility to set the municipality on a path toward good governance and effective service delivery rests with the residents, who are empowered to hire and fire politicians through their votes.

Issued by ActionSA