GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) is currently undertaking research into the viability of amalgamated municipalities in the country.
The Dr Beyers Naudé Local Municipality (DBNLM) that was formed after the merging of the Camdeboo-, Baviaans- and Ikwezi municipalities will be included in this research and the Dr Beyers Naudé Residents' and Ratepayers' Action Group has been identified as one of the stakeholders to be interviewed as part of the research process.
This joint action group was established in 2021 by representatives of the residents' and ratepayers' associations from the different DBNLM towns with the objective of sharing difficulties and possible solutions and speaking with one voice to municipal officials and government departments.
A meeting between Dr Siviwe Mditshwa, Executive Director of CoGTA, and the Graaff-Reinet representatives of the joint action group has been scheduled for Thursday 15 December, whilst representatives from other towns within the municipality will be interviewed online.
Graaff-Reinet Residents and Ratepayers Association
The Graaff-Reinet Residents and Ratepayers Association (GRRPA) stated that their position relating to the amalgamation of the three municipalities into the DBNLM remains the same.
At the time when the notice of the proposed amalgamation was published on 10 February 2015, Elizabeth Buisman, duly authorized by the then Graaff-Reinet Ratepayers' Association (now the GRPPA), submitted an objection in terms of Section 26 of the Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act.
The main contention of the Graaff-Reinet Ratepayers' Association's objection was that the then Camdeboo Municipality did not have the capacity to govern its own municipal area, let alone take in two other municipalities far removed from it.
Their objection also included a number of factors to be taken into account in terms of Section 25 of the same Act, one of which was the status of the then Ikwezi Municipality. "On Tuesday, 17 February 2015, it was reported that the Minister of CoGTA had withdrawn his proposal to amalgamate certain dysfunctional municipalities in the Eastern Cape.
However, this did not include Ikwezi Municipality. The MEC for CoGTA in the Eastern Cape was cited as stating that it had been determined that dysfunctional municipalities should not be treated in the same way as smaller municipalities and that the province was busy with intervention programmes and turnaround strategies for all dysfunctional municipalities. Ikwezi Municipality has been declared dysfunctional and yet the proposal for amalgamation has not been withdrawn."
The Graaff-Reinet Ratepayers' Association was of the opinion that a precedent has been set by the withdrawal of the proposal for other dysfunctional municipalities and that this should be applied to Ikwezi Municipality as well.
Objection of the Graaff-Reinet Ratepayers' Association
The objection of the Graaff-Reinet Ratepayers' Association was submitted to the Municipal Demarcation Board by Samantha Graham-Maré (then Jankovich) who was a DA counsellor and the Caucus Secretary of the Camdeboo Caucus for the DA at the time.
In June 2021 Graham-Maré, now DA MP and Dr Beyers Naudé Constituency Leader, again questioned the highly contentious amalgamation of the former Camdeboo, Baviaans and Ikwezi local municipalities in a meeting with CoGTA where the Sarah Baartman District Municipality (SBDM) was delivering a presentation to local municipalities under its ambit.
She said the DBNLM is a classic example of a demarcation gone wrong and mentioned that she submitted a substantial report on why the amalgamation should not go ahead at the time when she spearheaded the DA's opposition to the amalgamation.
The Demarcation Board followed up with their own private independent study, conducted by Baker & Associates, and issued an 84-page report containing a great deal of what she has submitted.
In the final declaration at the end of their report, they proposed that the amalgamation should not go ahead but, subsequently, in contravention of their own report, they decided to request that the amalgamation should proceed.
According to Graham-Maré the municipality was then issued with a R20-million amalgamation grant which was supposed to assist in the establishment of the new municipality.
"From the outset the DBNLM received very little financial support from provincial and national government and things have gone from bad to worst in the interim," Graham-Maré said.
She reiterated that the amalgamation should never have gone ahead and wanted to know what the government is going to do to assist the DBNLM in either disestablishing over the next five years or getting the DBNLM functional and onto a sound financial footing.
The decision to merge the Camdeboo-, Baviaans-, and Ikwezi municipalities was taken by the Municipal Demarcation Board in 2015 and took effect after the local government elections in August 2016.
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