During a council meeting on Thursday, 20 September 2018, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in JB Marks Municipality called for remedial actions to be taken to rectify the state of affairs within council after a second consecutive council meeting was adjourned without dealing with important council agenda items.

The DA raised had raised concerns on the planning and strategic management of the municipality, this after the ANC once again neglected to attend to important issues affecting the municipality’s functionality.

Thursday’s council meeting had to be adjourned because of the expiry of an extended term of office of the Acting Municipal Manager, Cyril Henry, whilst the reasons for the previous postponement of a duly convened council meeting is still unknown to date.

The Acting Municipal Manager was initially appointed to act in his positions for three months, due to the fact that the Municipal Legislation does not permit the appointment of an acting Municipal Manager for longer than three months to ensure continuity in the management of council’s affairs his term was extended for another three months after permission was sought from the MEC for Local Government and Human Settlements.

Both terms expired before the council meeting on 20 September, leaving the municipality without a Municipal Manager and resulting in a situation where the council had to convene without a head of the administration to account to the council.

As a result of poor planning, the council meeting had to adjourn to allow the Executive Mayor time to call on the abovementioned MEC to second a suitable person to act up until a permanent Municipal Manager is appointed.

The DA is concerned with the lack of planning and respect of proceedings shown by the ANC-led administration in dealing with council matters, councillors are also extremely frustrated in the execution of their oversight role and it is beyond our comprehension how and where decisions are taken on behalf of our community when the council is not sitting.

The DA calls on the Executive Mayor Khumalo to immediately put in measures to prevent such mismanagement of council affairs from happening again. The DA is serious about service delivery and this total disregard for duly elected leaders of the JB Marks is now severely impacting on our work as councillors.

The DA will submit questions to the cost in cases where meetings of this nature are being cancelled, we cannot allow taxpayers’ money to be wasted due to poor planning.

The people of JB Marks need a government that will prioritise service delivery through an effective administration, only a DA-led government can bring this change and build one South Africa for all.

Issued by DA