Mtubatuba, gateway to the iSimangaliso Wetland Park inside the uMkhanyakude District whose cholera deaths open this archive's KwaZulu-Natal file, has been under some form of provincial intervention for most of its existence. In September 2011 MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube applied to court to halt an unlawful appointment of a municipal manager. In June 2012 she imposed a financial intervention under sections 136 to 138 of the MFMA after the municipality ran a R6 million overdraft, with a R1.2 million shortfall on its infrastructure grant and R2.4 million on electrification, and salaries consuming 46.6% of the operating budget.
By January 2015 the 2011/12 audit was a disclaimer, the council was marked by "political intolerance, tensions, instability", the municipal manager faced charges for unauthorised overtime, supply-chain breaches and failure to produce a valuation roll, and councillors "openly requested a dissolution of the Council". The NCOP approved dissolution under s139(1)(c) on 11 February 2015 (ATC150211); the administrator rated service delivery at 45%. In April 2023 Mtubatuba was among eight KwaZulu-Natal municipalities whose s139(1)(b) interventions were extended.