"Something drastic needs to be done about Makana Municipality" EC MEC

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Eastern Cape Local Government MEC, Fikile Xasa, says something "drastic" has to be done about the Makana Municipality in Grahamstown.

He was commenting after meeting the mayors and senior officials from 15 Eastern Cape Municipalities on Tuesday which had received audit disclaimers and adverse audit results in the latest reports from Auditor General, Kimi Mawketu.

This week the Rhodes University-based Public Service Accountability Monitor joined the Unemployed Peoples Movement in calling on Bhisho to intervene in the Makana Municipality using Section 139 of the Constitution in a bid to address ongoing service delivery woes and governance failures in the Makana Municipality.

Speaking to the media after the meeting the municipalities in East London, MEC Xasa said an announcement on the Makana Municipality will be made on Wednesday.

DA MP, Andrew Whitfield, says they've written to Xasa requesting that he place the Municipality under administration.

However, he says instead, "Xasa opted to second an acting Municipal Manager and acting Chief Financial Officer to oversee a recovery programme."

Whitfield says "sadly, this intervention has not been successful, and the financial woes in Grahamstown are worse than ever."

"The Makana Municipality has been in a state of decline since the 2011 Local Government Election," said Whitfield.

On Monday the the Public Service Accountability Monitor joined forces with the Unemployed Peoples Movement to call on the Eastern Cape Government to use "Section 139 (1) of the Constitution" to address service delivery and governance failures in the Makana Municipality.

In an open letter, the Public Service Accountability Monitor and the Unemployed Peoples Movement point to recent findings by the Auditor General, and they also drew attention to a wide range of failures within the legal and regulatory framework governing the municipality.

The parties say the "failures fall under the criteria for a section 139 intervention by the provincial government."

Jay Kruuse of the Public Service Accountablitiy Monitor says "there's compelling evidence within the Auditor General report that Makana Municipality has repeatedly faced challenges that section 139 seeks to resolve and that these challenges have yt to be resolved and have shown litle or no signs of improvement."