Gauteng Premier David Makhura announced on Thursday morning that the City of Tshwane would be placed under administration.
Makhura said this during a media briefing on Thursday at the offices of the Gauteng legislature.
"The Gauteng executive council met yesterday (Wednesday) to assess developments [in] the City of Tshwane and decided to invoke Section 139(1)(c) of the Constitution," he said.
Makhura added this meant that the City would be dissolved and placed under administration. By-elections are expected to take place within 90 days of the appointment of administrators.
The DA said its leadership was deliberating on the announcement and would release a statement later on Thursday.
"The municipality is currently incapable of carrying out its constitutional obligations. The municipality does not have a mayor and there is no municipal manager. The council has failed to meet and consider matters that affect the functioning of the municipality and service delivery," Makhura said.
Reasons for administration
The premier gave six reasons for the executive council's decision:
- a flagrant disregard for them Municipal Finance Management Act regarding procurement processes which eroded good governance;
- unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure flagged by the Auditor-General;
- a failure to spend conditional grants;
- the irregular appointment of senior managers;
- a failure to elect ward committees; and
- a failure to collect refuse as well as severely compromised drinking water.
Makhura said these issues were raised with the municipality which failed to act on Gauteng Cogta MEC Lebogang Maile's directives.
He said the situation in Tshwane constituted exceptional circumstances which warranted the dissolution of the council.
He added that national Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma would be informed of the decision on Thursday.
On Wednesday, DA leader John Steenhuisen threatened to take the province to court if this decision was taken.
READ: EFF, DA at odds over Tshwane coalition talks
Steenhuisen argued that Maile and the executive council had no grounds to place the metro under administration. The DA's interim leader accused the ANC of causing dysfunction in the City.
However, Makhura said he took note of the DA's veiled threats of court action, adding that provincial government would not be blackmailed into inaction.
"We want to warn political parties not play political games with the lives of residents. The current uncertainty, instability, inaction and collapse of service must be confronted fearlessly and stopped in its tracks. The people of Tshwane must come first," he said.
Controversies
Last week, the council failed to appoint a new mayor following Stevens Mokgalapa's last day in office, placing it at risk of dissolution because it failed to pass its adjustment budgets by the end of February 2020.
Mokgalapa resigned after his own party gave him an ultimatum. He had been suspended after an audio clip of him engaging in an apparent intimate act with former roads and transport MMC Sheila Senkubuge.
He was appointed in 2019 ahead of the national polls in a bid, by the DA, to stabilise the municipality following the resignation of Solly Msimanga.
Msimanga also resigned with a cloud over his head, which included allegations of the irregular awarding of a multibillion-rand contract to GladAfrica.