Gauteng will never return to its former glory days as a beacon of hope for the rest of SA if the provincial government fails to address the root causes of the challenges plaguing the province. Gauteng’s committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs yesterday said the decline in performance of some municipalities – Sedibeng, Midvaal, Emfuleni, Lesedi, Merafong, Mogale City, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Joburg – “is evidence of dismal service delivery. The reality of the community”. The National Treasury also identified poor financial management at the local government level as a problem, with 43 municipalities in “financial and…
Gauteng will never return to its former glory days as a beacon of hope for the rest of SA if the provincial government fails to address the root causes of the challenges plaguing the province.
Gauteng’s committee on co-operative governance and traditional affairs yesterday said the decline in performance of some municipalities – Sedibeng, Midvaal, Emfuleni, Lesedi, Merafong, Mogale City, Tshwane, Ekurhuleni and Joburg – “is evidence of dismal service delivery. The reality of the community”.
The National Treasury has also identified poor financial management at local government level as a problem, with 43 municipalities in “financial and service delivery crisis”.
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The Treasury said allocations increased by R14.3 billion over the medium term, but “many municipalities fail to implement their funded budgets, meaning they are not financially sustainable and lack credible financial management”.
‘Province far from relief’
Thokozile Madonko, a senior researcher at the Center for Southern Inequality Studies at Wits University, said that despite the bailout in Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s budget speech, most provinces did not feel relieved.
“It is not really additional resources to the municipality to be able to tackle the current demand, but really looking at some of the historical problems municipalities like Tshwane and Emfuleni are facing,” he noted.
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Madonko said that provinces like Gauteng needed clear terms on “conditional grants to ensure that prepaid meters or smart meters to gain a wider base and to deal with illegal connections as expected”.
University of Mpumalanga public policy lecturer Dr John Molepo said it was worrying that no plan had been mentioned to give municipalities the capacity to deal with corruption and revenue collection.
“They can spend money on the problem, but if there is a problem like the disastrous report into the finances of Tshwane, which confirmed more than R10 billion in irregular expenditure, not addressed, in a few years, they will be back where they started. This has been became a crisis in many municipalities.
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“They must ensure accountability because that is the key for the municipality to maintain itself,” said Molepo.
Gauteng municipalities owe Eskom
Giving his first State of the Province Address, Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi said all municipalities in Gauteng owe Eskom R8.6 billion, “of this, R6 billion is owed to Emfuleni”.
He said it was time the Gauteng government intervened. However, during the Gauteng Legislative debate, the EFF’s Lebo Masoleng said Emfuleni cannot be fixed and Lesufi should ensure the municipality can provide basic services instead of building smart and mega cities.
– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za