The Madibeng Local Municipality will lose almost R146m of its conditional grant allocated to municipalities for the 2022/23 financial year, due to a lack of spending on service delivery.

National Treasury has decided to withhold conditional grant funding from Madibeng and eight other North West municipalities.

This decision has been communicated by the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, to the North West MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nono Maloyi.

“Madibeng is the biggest loser,” says DA member of parliament, Freddy Sonakile.

According to National Treasury, the decision to withhold conditional grant funding was informed by the poor performance of municipalities against the requirements of each grant allocated to the province. The conditional grants affected are the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, Energy Efficiency and Demand-Side Management Grant, and Water Services Infrastructure Grant, among others.

“This is a heavy blow to service delivery in North West. ANC-governed municipalities not only fail to invest in infrastructure development and maintenance but when they receive funding, fail to spend the money on projects it is intended for,” says Sonakile.

National Treasury indicated that portions of the affected municipality’s allocations would no longer be transferred in the current financial year.

“The little revenue collected by municipalities will be utilised for operational and wage bill expenses, and as municipalities struggle with the infrastructure backlog, the withholding of conditional grant funding will contribute to an increase in the already ballooning Eskom and water bulk services debt, third-party payments such as PAYE, VAT, and pension and medical aid fund contributions, but worse of all, it will further collapse basic service delivery to residents,” Sonakile says.