27 Oct The community of Zwililo Local Municipality in Limpopo is in despair.

The community of Zwililo Local Municipality in Limpopo is in despair. It is frustrated at the dire state of the municipality and its hopes of a municipality that reduces poverty. takes care of its residents and provides services that keep fading. The challenges faced by the municipality are due. in part. to non-compliance with the regulatory environment governing the municipality’s operations. At present. the municipality is failing to service the debt of eaoo million that it owes to the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Its debt to Esltom [where it purchases bulk electricity} is R 1o million and rising. while Izinyolta {illegal electricity connections) continue to source electricity illegally. The various parties on the council of Ewililo Local Municipality are at loggerheads on the proposed budget and the opposition consistently boycotts council meetings so that there is no quorum to adopt a budget. As a result. there is no budget at the beginning of the financial year. This casts serious doubt on the municipality’s financial sustainability. A council meeting was held to deliberate on the state of Ewililo Local Municipality and the fulfillment of its local government objectives. In the meeting. the Municipality’s legal services unit advised the council that. even though the municipality has certain 3 challenges. there are no grounds for its supervision by neither the provincial nor national government. Given the facts on the ground. which provisions of the Constitution can the province and national government use to ensure that the Ewililo Local Municipality can fulfill its local government objectives? (1 5}