After questions were asked in the provincial legislature recently, it has come to light that the Merafong City Local Municipality owes the Gauteng provincial government millions in outstanding fees.
On 19 March, the DA’s constituency head for Merafong, Ms Ina Cilliers, asked Mr Ismail Vadi, the MEC for roads and transport, questions about the Merafong City Local Municipality’s vehicle testing stations in the provincial legislature.
The MEC said that by January this year, the municipality owed the province a staggering R14 967 653.40 for money for vehicle- and traffic-related activities that were supposed to have been paid over to them. During the past year, Gauteng has issued several invoices to Merafong. The first of these was for R2 065 399.04, issued in February 2017. In August last year, another invoice was issued, this time for R2 448 437.44. From here, things seem to have gone downhill as several more invoices for outstanding monies were issued.
These were for R2 449 979.68 in September, R2 047 375.40 in October, for R2 316 671.36 in November, R1 881 068.44 in December and for R1 958 722.04 in January 2018.
On 26 June 2001, the municipality signed an official service level agreement (SLA) with the provincial government, according to which it would pay over a  percentage of the money it raises by delivering certain services on behalf of the province.
The MEC says the vehicle testing stations in Merafong are in such a poor condition that no vehicles could be tested here for the past ten months.
‘The Fochville Vehicle Testing Station has not been operating for several years. The Carletonville Vehicle Testing Station suspended its operations in June 2017 due to the absence of mandatory equipment (a mass meter and play detector). It has not yet installed the mandatory equipment and has not commenced with perations. The testing station is not operational due to non-compliance. The municipality needs to meet and comply with the standards for the station to be operational,’ Vadi told the DA.
However, the MEC noted that there are regular driver technical committee (DTC), vehicle testing station (VTS) and helpdesk meetings and that provincial officials conduct regular inspections.
‘If the Merafong City Local Municipality just does the necessary repairs and maintenance at these testing stations, it can make a lot of money. The problem has become so bad that, because the municipality is not paying over the money to the province as it is supposed to do, the province has stopped supplying the municipality with the necessary forms for drivers to renew their licences at times. If it continues like this, the situation may arise where local drivers will not be able to renew their driver’s licences in Merafong anymore. This will be a crisis as many people have neither the time nor the money to go to other municipalities for this simple task,’ Cilliers told the Herald on Tuesday.