Govan Mbeki Petition

The OUTA Govan Mbeki Branch plans to fix these issues with YOUR support!

More than R1 Billion of tax and ratepayers’ money was lost over the past five years due to corruption, maladministration and wasteful expenditure in YOUR MUNICIPALITY! This is only getting worse, yet, not even one official is held accountable.

Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) could’ve settled BOTH its debt owed to Eskom (R517 million) and Rand Water (R131 million). In addition, GMM could have provided YOUR COMMUNITIES with basic services!

Treating the symptoms has never been a solution, therefore we need to take care of the root cause of the problem:

1. We will make a submission to the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature to ensure that a FINANCIAL RECOVERY PLAN is developed and implemented for GMM. This plan forces the Municipal Manager and Officials to pay the debts owed to service providers and recover service delivery under very strict rules. Failure to adhere to the Financial Recovery Plan will result in a CRIMINAL CHARGE for those Officials responsible!

2. We will review, monitor and evaluate the progress of the financial recovery plan;

3. We will hold those officials to account who transgress any of the agreements; and

4. We will engage with Eskom and Rand Water to ensure a proper debt management process is in place.

BUT, we need YOUR help! YOUR participation in this petition is critical and will give us the mandate to proceed with this intervention on YOUR behalf. Please complete your details below:

Want some more clarity on this project?

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) will petition the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature and the MEC responsible for local government to invoke the provisions of Section 139(5) of the Constitution in conjunction with the provisions of Section 139 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) to ensure that a financial recovery plan for GMM is prepared and implemented.

The Constitution provides for circumstances when a municipality, as result of a crisis in its financial affairs, is in serious or persistent material breach of its obligations to provide basic services or to meet its financial commitments or admits that it is unable to meet its obligations or financial commitments. In such circumstances, the relevant provincial executive must intervene by imposing a recovery plan aimed at securing the municipality's ability to meet its obligations to provide basic services or its financial commitments.

Such a recovery plan binds the municipality in the execution of its legislative and executive authority, but only to the extent necessary to solve the crisis in its financial affairs. Should a municipality be unable to give effect to such recovery plan by approving the necessary legislative measures, the provincial executive must dissolve the municipal council and appoint an administrator until a newly elected Municipal Council has been declared elected. If the municipal council is not dissolved, the provincial executive must assume responsibility for the implementation of the recovery plan to the extent that the municipality cannot or does not otherwise implement the recovery plan.

Municipalities are obligated to meet their financial commitments. The primary responsibility is to avoid, identify and resolve financial problems in a municipality.

If the municipal manager fails to adhere to the financial recovery plan, it will result in a criminal offence as indicated within the MFMA. OUTA will make sure that the case is built, laid and that prosecution against such individual takes place.

We are currently engaging with the relevant authorities to see whether sanity will prevail and that officials will settle the outstanding debt that has been holding residents of Govan Mbeki Municipality to ransom. Our legal team is also contemplating the relevant legal actions to ensure that the lights stay on, that water flows and that those who are responsible for this chaos is held accountable.

How we work?

The same model we apply on a national basis will also apply to our Local Government Strategy. We will ensure that those officials who abuse their authority are held accountable for matters relating to the maladministration and corruption. This same model was applied to matters relating to State Capture, e-tolls, Eskom Tariff Hikes, SAA, and many more. OUTA Local provides your community with a well-established and organised support system, which  includes research, investigations, litigation, communications, empowerment and a financial platform.

We tackle real community related issues, but can only do so with YOUR SUPPORT!

Thank you for participating in OUTA’s Active Citizenry initiative, which aims to institute a Financial Recovery Plan for YOUR local municipality.

Please feel free to share this petition with as many family, friends and community members as possible by clicking here.

The journey has officially started. Together we can rectify the issues in your municipality.