Cape Town - An administrator has been appointed to assist the long-embattled Oudtshoorn municipality, the Western Cape government said on Wednesday.
“Kamalasen Chetty, ex-municipal manager of the Cape Winelands District Municipality, has been nominated as the Administrator for Oudtshoorn,” said Minister of Local Government in the province Anton Bredell.
Bredell explained that Chetty’s role would be to “return the council of Oudtshoorn to normality”.
The move came after the municipality had earlier accepted the need for provincial intervention.
Oudtshoorn municipality has been in a dysfunctional state for almost two years due to an ongoing power struggle between the African National Congress and Democratic Alliance and their coalition partners, with the municipal budget failing to be approved on several occasions.
However, on July 31, under the authorisation of the province’s executive, Bredell gazetted a notice of provincial intervention into the municipality in terms of section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution.
According to Bredell, the intervention and administration process under Chetty would be re-evaluated every three months.
“Processes are being put in place to ensure the council can run the town as they are meant to do. This has not been happening for the past two years. We are determined to ensure a lasting and sustainable solution for the people of Oudtshoorn,” said Bredell.
A team of “experts” had already been appointed to support Chetty in his new role.
“The team has been on the ground working hard for the past few weeks and progress is being made,” said Bredell, “Some of the work being done includes establishing a Municipal Planning Tribunal and developing the council’s Municipal Land Use Planning Bylaws, to ensure they conform to national legislation.”
Throughout the intervention, Bredell guaranteed that Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Pravin Gordhan would remain in the loop.
The next part of the intervention would be considering the re-establishment of political structures such as committees to assist in the governing Oudtshoorn. This would be tabled in the third week of August.
ANA