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Tomorrow will mark exactly 11 months since Section 139 (5)(a) and (c) of the Constitution was invoked in the Mangaung Local Municipality on 24 December 2019. An entire administration team was brought to Mangaung and yet alarmingly the Council has still not managed to decide or approve the Terms of Reference for this team of supposed specialists.

The last time the matter served in Council was when the Terms of Reference were referred back for a legal opinion, as another delay tactic by the governing party.

This means that the administration team, led by Advocate Mofokeng, has been acting and taking decision in the Mangaung Metro without valid Terms of Reference, or rather without any legal authority, effectively making all his decisions unlawful. As an Advocate one would think that Mr. Mofokeng would wait for an “employment contract” before issuing any instructions.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) finds it highly concerning that National Treasury, the Provincial COGTA and Treasury departments and the Office of the Premier in the Free State would send this team without any Terms of Reference. Is it an oversight? Or a deliberate attempt cause further division?

What is also alarming is that the proposed Terms of Reference for the administration team are not consistent with Section 139 (5) (a) and (c) of the Constitution. The Advocate and his team cannot be the administrators of the Mangaung Metro as the Council was never dissolved as per Section (139) (5) (b).  Therefore, Advocate Mofokeng as it stands is only a representative of the Provincial Executive Council and his mandate would therefore only be the Financial Recovery Plan. Up to date, the Advocate and his entourage have failed to deliver a Financial Recovery Plan.

National Treasury made an elaborate presentation to the Mangaung Council about this proposed team of saviors.ar Part of their mandate was to present monthly reports to the Mangaung Council which has never happened. All this team has done is cause confusion in the Metro, service delivery is worse than ever, Mangaung employees are not sure who to report or listen to, and resulted in factions of the City Manager and factions of those reporting to the Administrator.

If COGTA is not going to dissolve the Mangaung Metro Municipality, they must remove this very expensive team out of Mangaung, because they are wasting time.

Issued by DA