President Ramaphosa has millions lying around ($4-million in banknotes, according to some) on his farm in Limpopo, while in my village, Mahlathi, also in Limpopo, people have been waiting for two months for their Social Relief of Distress grants to be paid.
The National Treasury has imposed financial interventions in eight Eastern Cape municipalities that were identified as being in distress. Working with the department of provincial treasury and co-operative governance & traditional affairs (Cogta) in the province, the intervention requires the preparation and implementation of a financial recovery plan (FRP) to assist the municipalities in crisis.
The Eastern Cape government is taking control of eight municipalities red-flagged by the National Treasury as being on the brink of collapse and requiring urgent intervention.
Amid financial and administration instability, the ailing Stutterheim-based Amahlathi municipality could soon be without an administration boss. This as mayor Onke Mgunculu forges ahead with plans to suspend municipal manager Ivy Sikhulu-Nqwena. Mgunculu last week gave the municipal manager seven days to give reasons why she should not be placed on precautionary suspension, pending investigations into a number of alleged mismanagement transgressions.
Amahlathi local municipality mayor Onke Mgunculu celebrated his first 100 days in office by handing over a new fire station in Keiskammahoek on Friday. He promised there were other infrastructural projects in the pipeline. According to authorities, the small town had no fire station of its own and relied on neighbouring towns in the event of a fire.