Mpumalanga councils still struggling

The Mpumalanga Treasury says government is implementing interventions in municipalities that are struggling financially.

This was in response to a statement by the Democratic Alliance (DA) last week regarding the “dilapidated” state of the province’s finances.

The statement said the party had previously written to the former MEC of cooperative governance and traditional affairs and now premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane detailing the financial issues and asking her to place the Emalahleni local municipality under administration after its bill to Eskom reached “an exorbitant R1 billion”.

“Her failure to do so resulted in this financial crisis spiralling out of control and the growth of this debt by R3.6 billion.”

The DA added that municipalities such as Emalahleni, Govan Mbeki, Lekwa and Thaba Chweu continuously struggled with revenue generation, debt collection policies and meter readings and paying creditors due amounts on time, despite the implementation of financial recovery plans.

It said that as of 31 October last year, Emalahleni was owed R5.3 billion for services delivered and in turn owed Eskom R4.6 billion.

Over the same period, Thaba Chweu owed the entity R827 million.

“As a result of this debt, the above-mentioned two municipalities and many other municipalities in our province often find themselves on Eskom’s disconnection list,” read the statement.

Mpumalanga Treasury spokesman Letshela Jonas said the government was implementing interventions within the municipalities in terms of financial recovery plans “as prescribed in Section 139 (1)(a) of the MFMA [Municipal Finance Management Act]”.

He said the problems were not only due to financial management issues, but a combination of other factors as well, such as dilapidated infrastructure, which added to technical and nontechnical losses of water and electricity, illegal connections and tampering with meters.

Jonas said Treasury and cooperative governance and traditional affairs’ support to municipalities included installing resident financial advisors to support the improvement of financial management by Treasury and the Development Bank and technical support through the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency.

“The provincial Treasury has analysed all municipal budgets and assisted municipalities to table reviewed funded adjustment budgets.

“Municipalities have been assisted to develop municipal revenue management strategies and action plans,” he said.