MUNICIPAL councillors resident on trust land where property rates do not apply are a danger to municipal functionality and directly impact its financial stability.
This, according to Municipal Administrator Bamba Ndwandwe, is the reason Mtubatuba Municipality, where only five of 38 councillors pay property rates, is perpetually in the ‘red’ for both irregular and unauthorised expenditure.
Responding to a report authored by Municipal Manager Siyabonga Ntuli and General Manager for Corporate Services Ningi Dladla, Ndwandwe revealed in an open letter to councillors the extent to which they and senior management have manipulated and wrongfully funneled ratepayers’ funds.
Summarising the status of municipal staff salaries, Ntuli’s report serves only to highlight the debilitating incompetence of those in charge.
Salary discrepancies, both shortfalls and over-payment, amount to R4.3-million.
While Ntuli’s report states unequivocally that shortfalls must be paid, it also states salary over-payment, resulting from inflated annual increases, should not be rectified.
‘Senior managers and Councillors alike seem to celebrate that employees would retain the benefits of the irregular salary increases,’ said Ndwandwe.
Employees affected by the shortfall were not named in Ntuli’s report yet he demanded payment be made with immediate effect and provided for in January’s budget adjustment.’Councillors were more responding to public gallery than looking after the interests of the municipality or ratepayers,’ said Ndwandwe who also said the shortfalls were due to the negligence and incompetence of management.
Despite help being available from the provincial SALGA (South African Local Government Association) office, Ntuli, Dladla and CFO Bheki Thusi simply did not do their sums correctly.
Shortfalls aside, some employees’ annual increases were higher than those set out by the South African Local Government Bargaining Chamber (SALGBC). Moreover, most municipal salaries in Mtubatuba are inflated, with junior employees receiving salaries fit for senior-level positions.
Furthermore, Mtubatuba Council took a decision in 2012 to set the minimum wage at R6 000 during a time when the national norm in local government was R4 900.
Mtubatuba Municipality’s current liabilities exceed its assets by R16 409 133, with misappropriated conditional grants of R8 962 603.
These figures have grown exponentially since 2008.
In January the executive’s vote on subsistence and travel was already over-spent by a startling 347%.
All irregular, or unlawful, expenditure must now be recovered from either the councillors or managers.
‘There is simply no culture of financial prudence [at Mtubatuba Municipality],’ said Ndwandwe.
