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Request for Makana Municipality to be placed under administration

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The DA in the Eastern Cape has requested that the Makana Municipality be placed under administration.

Last week’s bail-out by Rhodes University to pay R3 million to Makana as “advanced rates” because the municipality couldn’t pay staff salaries shows a municipality in dire financial distress.

Grahamstown’s water crisis, caused largely due to lack of funding to repair or replace ageing infrastructure, was another red light of Makana Municipality’s serious financial trouble.

I have written to the MEC for Local Government, Mlibo Qoboshiyane, to undertake a forensic investigation of the finances of Makana and to place the municipality under administration.

Furthermore, my colleague in parliament, Kevin Mileham MP, has written to the Minister of Cooperative Governance, Lechesa Tsenoli, asking him to intervene in this matter.

In addition, I will be following up why the Municipal Manager of Makana refuses to sign a Performance Agreement (a requirement by law) allegedly because he has received a better employment offer elsewhere.

If this is the case, the DA calls for this Municipal Manager to be sacked.

With Makana being a popular tourist- and education centre and Grahamstown a judicial seat of the High Court, it is imperative that swift action be taken to ensure stabilisation of this municipality.

The DA will ensure that this takes place.

Dacre Haddon

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Port Elizabethan

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