Mogale part of a R500 million financial crunch
More disturbingly, none of these financially distressed municipalities have tabled approved financial recovery plans.
The Sedibeng, Lesedi, Mogale City and Merafong municipalities in Gauteng are engaged in rampant financial mismanagement and are running on unfunded budgets until the end of the 2017/ 18 financial year.
This is according to Ashor Sarupen, a Member of the Provincial Legislature and Democratic Alliance (DA) Gauteng Spokesperson on Finance.
In a media statement by Sarupen, the DA previously revealed that ANC mismanagement in Mogale City, Merafong and Emfuleni saw these municipalities failing to meet their financial obligations to Eskom and Rand Water. This debt has run into hundreds of millions of rands.
“As a result, they have had to enter into payment arrangements to keep the lights on and the taps running. The trend of financial mismanagement by the ANC where it governs in Gauteng appears to be pervasive and persistent.”
Sarupen further stated that Finance Minister Nhlanhla Nene recently revealed in Parliament that the Sedibeng, Lesedi, Mogale City and Merafong City local municipalities collectively only have R343 million in cash to meet their financial obligations of R806 million by the end of the second quarter of the 2017/ 18 municipal financial year.
“All four of these municipalities have adopted unfunded budgets – intending to spend money they do not have and cannot raise. The financial situation in Mogale City, where the ANC dubiously ousted a DA-led coalition, is already so dire that the municipality has a cash balance of –R16 million.
More disturbingly, none of these financially distressed municipalities have tabled approved financial recovery plans to get out of the mess they have put themselves into.
“It appears that the ANC in Gauteng is totally disinterested in good governance, as the party is not holding its Mayors, Members of the Mayoral Committee for Finance and cadre-deployed officials to account for this dire situation. Continued ANC rule in both the province and these municipalities will lead them down the road to total financial ruin.”
Sarupen said the DA will be tabling questions to Gauteng’s Member of the Executive Council for Finance, Barbara Creecy as to how she allows this to persist, and if necessary, they will call on her to implement section 139(5) of the Constitution to stabilise the finances of these municipalities for the benefit of residents.
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