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PRESIDENT Jacob Zuma ripped into the country’s municipalities yesterday and blasted officials for internal power struggles he said had led to a “deep crisis of governance”.

Zuma’s scathing assessment of South Africa’s ailing towns and cities included a warning to mayors and municipal managers to expect sweeping changes.

Some of those Zuma took aim at were in attendance with him at a community hall in Cape Town’s Khayelitsha township.

Among them were Buffalo City Mayor Zukisa Faku, who told the Dispatch the President’s blistering attack came across as a personal indictment of her own strife- torn municipality.

Other prominent public officials present included 15 Cabinet ministers, their directors-general and the nine provincial premiers.

Apart from describing the wretched state of many municipalities, Zuma vowed a fundamental change in the way they were governed. He said a “rethink” on the relationship between local government and other organs of State was overdue.

He said it was possible some municipalities had been given functions they would never be able to fulfil.

Zuma said many municipalities were bankrupt, and some were owed revenue even by other government spheres.

National and provincial government departments currently owed municipalities R53million for services, something the leaders in those departments needed to act on without delay.

“These battles for control over resources render the affected municipalities effectively dysfunctional,” he said.

Zuma said there had to be a rethink on the role that other spheres of government played in local government . Experience showed the role of provincial and national spheres had not always been useful .

“There are often too many administrative burdens they place on municipalities, too many requests for reports for this or that,” he said to applause from his audience.

Zuma also slammed power struggles that had wrecked municipalities , much like Buffalo City.

“In some municipalities councillors tend to interfere in administrative management and operations of municipalities. They want to be mayor and municipal manager at the same time,” he said.

Faku said she was happy about Zuma’s speech as it reflected on the challenges faced by her municipality, where there has been a lot of “political interference and infighting”.

“It shows he is taking our problems seriously because there has been a problem with the appointment of the municipal manager. There is no municipality that can function without a municipal manager because that causes our problems in service delivery,” Faku said.

She cited BCM’s ANC Chief Whip Sonny du Plessis taking the municipality to court over the appointment of Mandla Sithole as municipal manager to replace Gaster Sharpley, who vacated the position last year.

Faku said Zuma was correct about other government spheres failing to support municipalities .

ANC provincial spokesperson Mlibo Qoboshiyane said they welcomed Zuma’s analysis of the problems that cripple local government and were also going to visit “unstable municipalities” in the next two weeks, including BCM.

“We have seen too much instability because of political infighting, which the ANC wishes to be the thing of the past. This (infighting) is going to hamper service delivery and we must try to minimise interference because it undermines government processes,” Qoboshiyane said.

National Taxpayers’ Union head Jaap Kelder – who has spent eight years spearheading a campaign that has led to 35 towns “withholding” rates – yesterday welcomed the fact that Zuma had finally acknowledged there was a problem.

Kelder said municipalities were “busy sinking” and that a new format had to be negotiated to save them.

“The role of municipalities and their responsibilities are clearly set out in the Constitution. A new system will require a change of the Constitution and to be able to do that the ANC will need a parliamentary majority, which they do not have. They will need the support and input of other parties … those are the implications.

Ndlambe Action Group head Derek Victor said he hoped the ANC had finally realised they had made “a major mistake politicising local government”. - By STAFF REPORTERS and SAPA