Councillors of Msunduzi Municipality must emulate DA-run councils, including their neighbouring UMngeni Municipality, to achieve efficient service delivery status, said political analyst Professor Lesiba Teffo.

KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli has announced a high-level working group to help improve the province's capital city.

The group will be led by Ravi Pillay, a governance expert and former MEC for Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, alongside Dr Nonhlanhla Mkhize, the provincial government director-general.

Teffo expressed confidence that under Ntuli, who chairs the IFP in KwaZulu-Natal, struggling municipalities could be successfully transformed.

He said the IFP performed better in providing political leadership in its municipalities.

“Whenever the DA governs the municipality, it governs well and even in KwaZulu-Natal there is a mayor by the name of Chris Pappas.

“I know that IFP did fairly well in combating corruption by appointing capable, qualified and experienced people.

“Yes, it can be done (turned around) if you ask how the DA gets it done, how the IFP gets it done through putting the right people in the right positions,” he said.

He said the appointment of Pillay, who is an ANC activist, instead of appointing an IFP leader to co-lead the team meant that Ntuli means business.

“We had enough of cadre deployment. Even the ANC knows that they are in trouble because of cadre deployment.

“They (ANC) are saying this themselves that ‘it's time now that we put the right people’ because they are in trouble because of cadre deployment,” said Teffo.

Msunduzi municipality had for years been in and out of administration, which was partially lifted early last year, due to crumbling service delivery linked to poor performance.

Pappas said while many municipalities were struggling to perform due to insufficient budget, Msunduzi was facing a problem of a special kind, which he said was poor political and administrative leadership.

“It is possible to turn around Msunduzi, but I don’t think that the intervention that has been put in place is going to solve the problem.

“Msunduzi has a political problem and administrative problem of which Msunduzi needs to be dissolved, we need new political leadership and making sure that those officials who had been looting and not doing something for years are dealt with as you cannot have the same people doing the same thing over and over again and expect things to be different,” said Pappas.

Although he welcomed Ntuli’s effort to do something about Msunduzi, Pappas said the intervention was misplaced “in terms of how to really deal with the issue.”

When approached for comment, ANC provincial spokesperson Fanle Sibisi said the newly established provincial task team would have its first meeting on Sunday to familiarise itself with provincial issues.

Other members of the working group would be the provincial finance head, Carol Coetzee, provincial Cogta head Dr Joey Krishnan, Public Works and Infrastructure acting head Dr Vish Govender, Human Settlements head Max Mbili, Madoda Khathide, local government deputy director-general, and Farhad Cassimjee, chief director responsible for municipal finance at the provincial treasury.

Ntuli said a business sector representative would be co-opted into the team, which would report to the cabinet quarterly.

He said the intervention in Msunduzi was a replication of the Presidential eThekwini working group model, which President Cyril Ramaphosa launched early last year in the eThekwini Municipality.

In what could be interpreted as an attempt to clean up the city, Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla this week led a campaign to demolish makeshift structures put up by street vendors in the dirtiest part of the city centre. Tractor loader backhoe (TLB) were used to demolish structures while the city security personnel shut down illegal shops operating in some of the buildings.

When announcing the team, Ntuli said he had observed signs of service delivery improvement in the CBD.

He told this reporter that the councillors would continue with their normal work of playing the oversight role.

“The group would be reporting even to the councillors and cabinet to make them aware of the challenges that still need to be tackled,” he said.

He said Msunduzi was prioritised because it was a capital city.

He said the cabinet was yet to decide in which other municipalities the group would be deployed to assist.

However, EFF MPL Mongezi Twala said Ntuli should also focus on IFP-run municipalities, which he said were also collapsing.

bongani.hans@inl.co.za