The Mtubatuba Municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal has been dissolved and its 38 councillors relieved of their duties, MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) Nomusa Dube-Ncube said on Friday.
“In view of the deteriorating situation and failure by the municipal council to perform its executive functions… we approached the Cabinet and the executive has resolved to dissolve the Mtubatuba municipal council,” she said in a statement.
“This means that all the political responsibilities of the municipality are now vested with the MEC for Cogta as assigned by the Cabinet and the Constitution.”
An administrator had been appointed until a new council was elected, she said.
The council was informed on Friday.
Dube-Ncube said the municipality had been in the “spotlight for a while, with allegations of internal bickering, maladministration and poor financial management”.
She said the municipality had also been plagued by a series of “power games which disrupted the delivery of services and spilled over to the community leading to community protests”.
Reasons for the dissolution of the municipality included financial problems, refusal to co-operate with the administrators deployed to support it, and unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
“Since 2012, the municipal council remained largely dysfunctional. Instead of decent service delivery and clean administration, the community has only witnessed pure political theatre,” she said.
“This political instability and the poor leadership resulted in weakened oversight and deteriorating governance and compliance in this municipality.”
