Another chance for the cadre who couldn't
The new ANC-run Oudtshoorn council is attempting to appoint Mpho Mogale as its acting Municipal Manager - even though he ran the last municipality he managed into the ground.
In 2006, Mr Mogale was deployed from a senior position at the national Department of Cooperative Governance to the Nokeng tsa Taemane municipality in Gauteng when the ANC took control of it from the DA in the local elections of that year.
When Mr Mogale arrived, the municipality was on an even keel after the DA had spent three years reversing its decline under the ANC. But under his management things went rapidly downhill. Nokeng's payroll swelled as more and more people were employed. It got to the point where staff salaries were equivalent to about 115% of rates income - way above the 30% suggested by Treasury. Dodgy contracts and rampant misspending were the order of the day.
The municipality eventually went bankrupt, and had to be bailed out by the Gauteng provincial government three times. In four years, fewer than 78 houses were delivered (compared to the 2,000 built by the DA in three years). Infrastructure was neglected. During one month the municipality failed to send out bills because it did not have enough money to pay for the postage stamps.
In 2009, Nokeng was placed under administration by the Gauteng government.
National government continues to trumpet all sorts of strategies to turn around failing municipalities, but they do not work because they do not address the real causes of the problem, which include:
- The deployment of cadres based on their political connections rather than their suitability for the job;
- The lack of political will to hold people accountable for service delivery failure;
- The belief that local government is an employment bureau for cronies first and a vehicle to deliver services second.
If Mogale is appointed as Oudtshoorn's municipal manager, an already perilous situation is likely to get worse. The DA will closely monitor Outdshoorn to see that expenditure on personnel is within Treasury guidelines. Failure to spend money on delivering services will condemn Oudtshoorn to the kind of implosion that is happening in ANC-run municipalities across South Africa, with a devastating impact on the poor and unemployed.
Statement issued by James Lorimer MP, DA Shadow Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, August 25 2011
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