Corrupt municipalities named

Cape Town - Emfuleni in southern Gauteng is one of five municipalities the Democratic Alliance "named and shamed" on Wednesday as among the most-corrupt, inefficient and financially mismanaged in the country.

Emfuleni includes the towns of Sebokeng, Sharpeville and Vanderbijlpark.

Briefing the media, DA provincial and local government spokesperson Willem Doman said the inability of many South African municipalities to deliver had reached crisis proportions.

Releasing a DA report on what it termed "the rot in African National Congress municipalities", he said factors such as corruption, financial mismanagement and under-qualified and overpaid officials, were undermining attempts to mend this situation.

An example was Emfuleni, where more than a quarter of households didn't have access to water, almost the same number were without sanitation, and the housing backlog stood at 65 688 homes.

Corruption and nepotism

According to 2001 figures, the municipality was home to about 658 000 people, most (almost 85%) of whom were black.

Doman said it had been identified as one of 136 municipalities that needed to be "rescued" by the national government.

Doman said: "Emfuleni has failed to receive an unqualified report from the auditor-general for the past three years, and has been blighted by corruption and nepotism.

"The most notable was the R1m kickback received by council officials last year for selling off council assets at prices considerably lower than the market rate.

"The discovery earlier this year that the chief financial director has employed his wife, his two sons and his daughter in his department was an astonishing case of nepotism."

Despite the municipality's shocking state, the municipal manager received a R150 000 performance bonus on top of his R775 000 salary this year.

Culture of non-payment

According to the DA report, Emfuleni had "the worst culture of non-payment of all municipalities in the country", with a debtor collection period of 489 days.

The ANC-run municipalities of Phumelela in the Free State, Greater Kokstad in KwaZulu-Natal, Mbombela in Mpumalanga, and Bitou in the Western Cape also exemplified "the rot at local level".

Doman said Bitou, which included the up-market tourist town of Plettenberg Bay, "illustrates that even municipalities that have a fairly good revenue base can compromise delivery through poor financial management and corruption".

"Bitou was declared bankrupt last year by the Auditor-General."

He said the AG's report had revealed details of unauthorised credit card expenses of more than R100 000 by Bitou municipal manager George Seitisho, who had also taken irregular loans of up to R250 000. - SAPA