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Knysna Waterfront.
National Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa led a Ministerial Oversight Visit to the Garden Route District today to gain insight into the challenges and successes of municipalities in the region.
While municipalities in the Garden Route all face their own challenges, Knysna has in recent years struggled.
Issues of governance and service delivery failures have plagued the municipality.
Once a jewel in the crown of the Western Cape as a top tourist destination, its ratings have fallen.
In particular water, sanitation and refuse management challenges are still ongoing.
Provincial government now wants to intervene.
Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Anton Bredell, says, “I’ve sent a letter to Knysna Municipality to put them under administration. They must now answer. I hope they will answer within the next seven days. It’s all to do with their executive obligation towards water, sanitation, electricity, etc. And we need to get it right. It’s about management and leadership. The commitment today is that management and leadership will look inwards, pick up their hands. Our focus is not political; it is to deliver services to the people.”
Other issues that came to the fore at the meeting were the lack of funding for projects, positions not being filled and housing backlogs.
Minister Hlabisa says all spheres of government need to work together to solve these challenges.
“The visit is to share experiences to understand the issues from the district municipality and the local municipality. They have shared a number of issues that are challenges. One of the issues that concerns us the most is insufficient funding where one size fits all when it comes to grants. This is going to be well addressed during the review of the white paper on local government.”
The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs is currently reviewing the 1998 White Paper on Local Government.
Minister Hlabisa has indicated that the deadline for public comment, which would have been today, has been postponed until the end of July. The updated White Paper is expected to be published in March next year.
