The motion of no confidence against the Executive Mayor of the City of Matlosana Local Municipality Councillor, James Tsolela, has failed. This was after a council meeting on Friday, March 31st 2023, where Thirty-eight Councillors voted against the motion, twenty-two Councillors voted for it, and seventeen Councillors abstained their votes.
The motion was tabled by the Democratic Alliance political party, saying that there is immense financial mismanagement in the Municipality. Some of the points raised by the DA on this motion include the economic decline of the Municipality, the state of its infrastructure, and the Auditor General’s report. DA Councillor in the City of Matlosana Local Municipality, Johannes Le Granje said: "The Auditor General’s report shows that it is clear that there is no leadership in the City of Matlosana. It gives an unambiguous indication of the Municipality's debt of unauthorised, irregular and fruitless expenditure of R1.5 billion."
Le Granje further said this indicates that the Municipality's financial department is corrupt. He said that when the current administration took over the Municipality in November 2021, the Municipality owed Eskom and Midvaal Water approximately One billion Rand. It is apparent that currently, the Municipality owe both entities an estimated two billion rands.
The political party has communicated that they will consider retrying this motion of no confidence against the Executive Mayor.
In response to the motion of no confidence against him, Tsolela said that DA councillors should thoroughly research, as it is not a secret that the Municipality is facing financial challenges. According to the Executive Mayor, these challenges are due to some residents needing to pay for their services to the Municipality, which is something that he raised on his first day of the election as Mayor.
He continued to say that the Municipality’s debt is over R7 billion and that they have started to approach and encourage residents, business people, and government departments to pay their outstanding debts.
Mayor Tsolela said: “Business people owe the Municipality an amount of Six Hundred and Fifty Million Rands, government departments owe One Hundred and Seventy-Three Million Rands while most of the money is owed by residents.”
He said that the Provincial Department of COGHSTA has played an enormous role in helping the Municipality develop measures to encourage business people, residents and government departments to pay back their debts. The City of Matlosana Local Municipality has paid off three months' worth of their Eskom account from January until the end of March 2023.
Tsolela further said the current Municipal debt to Eskom is R1.4 billion, while they also owe Midvaal Water an amount of R1.1 billion.
Nkosinathi Qothwane, who is a resident in Matlosana said:” The DA tabled the motion of no confidence against the Mayor based on general issues of the lack of service delivery in the Municipality, and this has been persistent since 2011.”As a resident, there is no focused reconciliation regarding what we get from Eskom, the money owed, and the interest. No concentrated team is delegated to ensure that the debts accumulated every time within the Municipality are reconcilable .”
Qothwane further said the instability in the Municipality has existed since its previous administration.
ANC Co-ordinator in the Dr Kenneth Kaunda region, Mike Khauwe, confirmed that they received the motion and reached a decision not to support it as it has no substance. “It is clear that the DA campaign around the country is to seat the ANC Executive Mayors within Municipalities out", he said.
Khauwe further said it is clear that 90 percent of the issues raised by DA, have received the necessary attention. Some of these issues are attended to, and recovery plans are being instituted. "We apologise to our people that some challenges raised by the DA are indeed correct, but the community should be on the shoulders of an individual, who is the Executive Mayor, but all the councillors must be part of the solution providers, we must be a solution-driven municipality” he concluded.
