Two government expats, Dr Mike Sutcliffe and Dr Cassius Lubisi were announced by the recently-appointed KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) MEC, Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, to take the reigns on the intervention in the eThekiwni Municipality which has been placed under Section 154, effective from Monday, 1 July.
Section 154 is the support that calls for national and provincial governments to support municipalities. The city has been supported on an ongoing basis for a number of years by the National Treasury City Support Programme since 2015 and currently by the Presidential eThekwini Working Group with turnaround plans being implemented and monitored through work-stream meetings, which according to city spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana, has made significant progress.
“The Presidential Working Group was established to support and accelerate efforts by the municipality to improve service delivery, improve business confidence, and reposition eThekwini as an investment and tourism hotspot. The Presidential Working Group represents an intergovernmental collaborative approach to addressing challenges in local government, and includes active participation from all levels of government, the private sector, state-owned enterprises, organised labour, and civil society,” said Sisilana.
According to MEC Buthelezi, the strategic plan includes building a clean, effective, efficient responsive, and accountable local government, implementation of findings of investigation reports, addressing non-compliance with terms and conditions, and strengthening partnerships between communities’ civil society, the business sector and other critical roleplayers to restore public and investor confidence.
“We aim to restore eThekwini to its former status as the jewel in the crown of KZN. The appointed team will provide monthly reports to the MEC and will be in operation for 12 months starting from 1 July,” said MEC Buthelezi.
Sisilana said that the city always welcomes support from other spheres of government as long as the support is for the benefit of the people of eThekwini.
“EThekwini Council will engage further on KZN COGTA’s support to ensure that there is alignment with the Presidential eThekwini Working Group and other support programmes such as the city support programme from the National Treasury,” added Sisilana.
