National Treasury has vindicated the Democratic Alliance (DA) stance that a permanent Executive Mayor must be elected in Nelson Mandela Bay in order for the Municipality to adopt a lawful budget and to not lose millions of rands in grant funding.
This follows after the Metro’s unlawfully appointed and unqualified Acting City Manager, Mr Mvuleni Mapu, on 29 June 2020 received a letter from National Treasury stating that it considers it necessary to protect public funds by withholding the transfer of funds which entails the remaining 2019/2020 local government equitable share and conditional grants. This equates to almost R800 million that the City can ill afford to lose.
In addition, the City will also not be receiving any further grant funding for the 2020/2021 financial year if issues highlighted by National Treasury are not addressed.
Some of the key issues highlighted by National Treasury are:
· Failure to implement recommendations relating to forensic investigations into fraud and corruption in the City’s administration;
· The Municipality has been operating under the leadership of an interim Executive Mayor for a period of six months. Although the Municipal Structures Act provides for the Deputy Executive Mayor to act in the position of an Executive Mayor in the absence of the latter, this was never intended to be perpetual. If challenged, a competent Court may interpret this as irregular;
· The initial appointment of Mr Mvuleni Mapu as Acting City Manager without a council resolution is seen as irregular and therefore unlawful due to non-compliance with the Municipal Structures Act.
The Deputy Mayor, Cllr Tshonono Buyeye, has been acting as Interim Mayor since December 2020.
The National Treasury letter vindicates the DA’s stance that the Municipal Structures Act clearly states that filling of a mayoral vacancy is obligatory and therefore council is prescribed by law to elect a Mayor. All decisions taken under an Interim Mayor can, therefore, possibly be seen as unlawful and subject to legal scrutiny. The draft budget that was tabled yesterday during a council meeting and adopted by council can, therefore, possibly be seen as unlawful.
The DA previously wrote to National Treasury requesting intervention regarding to appointment of Mr Mapu. In spite of the misgivings of National Treasury council went ahead and appointed Mapu as Acting City Manager.
To compound the precarious position in Nelson Mandela Bay it seems the ANC-led coalition of corruption plans to reinstate the deeply compromised former Mayor, Cllr Mongameli Bobani, at the next council meeting.
The DA will do everything in its power to prevent the return of Bobani to power and will resort to legal action to ensure this.