GOVERNMENT’S plan to merge the country’s less viable municipalities with stronger municipalities could have seen uThungulu District Municipality becoming a metro this year with uMhlathuze as its core.
However, the District municipality says they are ‘not ready’ in terms of preparation and the demarcation process to adopt metro status.
The new move would have also incorporated Mbonambi, uMlalazi, Mthonjaneni and Nkandla municipalities into the newly formed metro.
The proposal is part of Co-operative Governance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s decision to reduce the number of municipalities from 283 to just over 250 countrywide.
Outlined by the Municipal Demarcation Board earlier this year, up to 30 municipalities including seven in KZN would be merged with bigger and stronger municipalities.
In an exclusive with the Zululand Observer, District Mayor Thembeka Mchunu said their decision to decline metro status would be communicated with the Minister.
‘Council resolved that as much as we appreciate the initiative by the Minister, we are not ready as a District.
‘The demarcation process takes time and we have to prepare ourselves,’ Mchunu said.
Questioned on uMhlathuze’s incorporation into the possible metro, Municipal Manager Dr NJ Sibeko said Council had not deliberated on the matter yet.
‘We received the circular from the Municipal Demarcation Board in January. As soon as the report surfaces to Council, we will make relevant comments,’ said Sibeko.
Save
According to Gordhan’s municipal savings scheme, the State stands to save a substantial chunk of the R4.4-billion allocated annually to these 30 municipalities when they are collapsed into others.
The saving will be mainly on the salaries for top officials, including municipal managers and chief financial officers.
Municipal managers earn between R800 000 and R2-million per annum, depending on the size of the municipality.
Metro managers earn more than R1m on average, but some small municipalities also pay exorbitant packages. Finance managers are often in the same salary bracket.
However, the move has been met with mixed reaction and the IFP has vowed to resist the proposal to absorb Nkandla into the proposed metro.
‘It is disingenuous and utterly opportunistic for the ruling party to want to govern Nkandla through underhanded tactics.
‘If they want Nkandla, they must go through the ballot.
‘The municipality is fully functional and therefore there is no sound basis to disestablish Nkandla,’ IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa told the Zululand Observer.
