/ 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.

The DA welcomes the cabinet decision to place the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality under national government administration.

However, should the national government not place the interests of residents above those of ANC factions in Mangaung, this intervention will also end in failure.

The cabinet has confirmed what the DA told the national Cogta minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, earlier this year, which is that no financial recovery plan has ever been implemented in Mangaung despite a 2020 decision to do so.

Instead of taking responsibility for turning the city around, the Free State Provincial Government did not make any fundamental changes to the way that the city was governed. ANC politicians did not allow administrators to do their work.

Depending on the particulars of the section 139(7) intervention, the national government will now step into the role that the provincial government failed to perform.

The details of this decision, which is not clear from the cabinet’s statement, will determine to what extent the powers of Manguang’s Executive Mayor and Council will be affected.

Minister Dlamini-Zuma has to draft the terms of reference that must be approved by the NCOP.

The DA is of the opinion that, due to the factional fighting of the ANC, the terms of reference must include the removal of the powers from the ANC-run executive in the Municipality. Failing to do so will doom the intervention to failure.

Either a new financial recovery plan will have to be devised for the municipality, or the existing one must be implemented by the national government.

The national intervention must be accompanied by the necessary notices of intention to the democratically elected council, a skilled intervention team and realistic objectives with clear times frames for their implementation and the eventual lifting of the intervention.

This will probably be for a period of 12 months, where after if there is no improvement, other actions will be taken that could include dissolving the municipal council in terms of Section 139(5)(b) of the Constitution.

The DA acknowledges the systemic mismanagement, and we will request the administrator to appoint an independent forensic investigation and skills audit on officials in the Metro. The results of such an audit must be published to provide true transparency to the ratepayers, residents, developers and businesses of Mangaung.

The residents must be informed who is responsible for this mess in the ANC-governed municipality. It is not just the ANC politicians in council but also the officials in the Mangaung Metro Municipality who must take responsibility. The officials and the executive have no respect for legislation and the Constitution.

Fraud, corruption and incompetence are the main problems and must be eliminated before we will see any improvement.

The people of Mangaung suffered enough, and the City of Roses must be lifted up out of the ashes.

The ANC failed in the said compliance to implement the financial recovery plan and fundamental necessities and yet, nobody did nothing and no consequences for those in the Executive followed.

The DA Caucus in Mangaung will do everything in our power to ensure that the national government does not repeat the mistakes of the provincial government.

Issued by Johan Pretorius - DA Mangaung Caucus Leader