The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has called for the immediate dismissal of municipal managers whose municipalities return service delivery funds to the National Treasury.

Addressing members of the Progressive Professionals Forum in Durban on Tuesday, ANC provincial convener, Jeff Radebe reiterated the party’s position that it will deal with poor performance of municipalities under the ANC in the province, especially those who fail to spend allocated funds that are then returned to the National Treasury.

Radebe was responding to the calls by the Institute for Local Government Management of South Africa who called on the ANC to act against municipal managers who fail to spend their budgets while people are crying out for service delivery.

Speaking on behalf of the body, Dr Nkosiyezwe Vezi lashed out at municipalities that are returning money to the National Treasury, urging the ANC to hold municipal managers accountable.

“As the ANC is on a drive to rebuild and renew itself after poor performance at the last year’s general elections, it must act against lazy municipal managers who fail to spend their budgets, while raw sewer runs to people’s yards.

"This is the main reason why people are angry and if the ANC wants to win back the people it must see to it all funds allocated to municipalities for service delivery are spent accordingly,” said Vezi.

In response, Radebe said not spending budgets that had been allocated must be a dismissal offence, vowing that his party will leave no stone unturned when it starts assessing the performance of municipalities.

“It is worrying that out of 54 municipalities, 40 have been found to not to have followed correct procurement processes. This is a serious problem that must be urgently addressed. I have gone through the latest Auditor General’s report and our municipalities are not doing the work as per the correct process. We will get to eThekwini, Msunduzi and others and we will leave no stone unturned,” said Radebe

Radebe, the former Minister in the Presidency said municipalities in the province have collectively returned more than R7 billion to the National Treasury because 'they did not know how to spend it while people are suffering on the ground'.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za