Durban - Separating politics from administration was one of the key steps that led to the Msunduzi Municipality getting its first clean audit in more than five years.
In an interview on Friday, mayor Chris Ndlela and municipal manager Mxolisi Nkosi, who were both appointed in 2011, said when they arrived at the municipality it was “a house on fire”.
The two spoke to The Mercury after the auditor-general recently announced that the municipality had been one of 22 in the province that had achieved clean audits for the 2014/15 financial year.
The municipality had been plunged into financial collapse and placed under administration in 2010 because of allegations of corruption, mismanagement, lack of controls and abuse of municipal resources.
On Monday the municipality has more than R700 million in cash reserves.
The men said the environment in 2011 was very politicised and fraught with threats of violence and intimidation.
Ndlela said at his first meeting with Nkosi, the auditor-general’s reports, in which there had been 70 adverse findings, from the previous year were discussed.
“During that meeting, we identified four key areas and that was service delivery, making staff behave professionally, revenue collection, and compliance with the law that we needed to deal with,” Ndlela said.
Nkosi said he still received death threats and his office had been broken into.
“In my first week here, there was an illegal industrial action, so it was actually a baptism of fire. I had no DMM (deputy municipal manager) and many people, who were acting in positions, did not want promotions because at that time taking the job was a risk to yourself and your family,” he said.
He said that getting staff to do their jobs without thinking about politics was a challenge in the ANC-led municipality.
“One of the things we had to deal with was making staff behave professionally. The staff was so politicised all the way down to the sweeper. We have focused on training staff and our budget for that has increased by 500%.”
He said the separation of roles was important as it helped people focus on what they were supposed to be doing and not interfere in other matters.
Batteries
“We are fortunate that we had an executive committee and council that wanted the municipality to succeed and so they worked to assist us.”
Nkosi said he aimed at getting small things right first, to effect a bigger change.
“There was a time when every report had a ‘replaced car battery’ item.
“There was nothing wrong with the car, but the batteries were being stolen.
“We have now put in controls. For instance in cars, there are pin codes for employees so we can monitor who is driving which car, which has in turn reduced the abuse of vehicles and reduced the repair cost.”
Despite their success, both men said their future with the municipality was not guaranteed and they would wait to be “deployed” by the ANC.
Nkosi’s term ends this month and Ndlela’s term of office will end before next year’s local government elections.
The Mercury
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.