12 North West councils fail to spend R496 million

Despite poor service delivery and corruption allegations, 12 North West municipalities have failed to spend more than R496 million in conditional grant funding for the 2022-23 financial year.

Of the 12 municipalities, 11 applied for rollovers but they were not approved.

In the 2021-22 financial year, nine North West municipalities failed to spend more than R460 million in conditional grants meant for infrastructure.

Communities complain about poor service delivery

This is despite the communities complaining about poor service delivery.

North West local government spokesperson Dineo Thapelo blamed the late appointment of service providers, dysfunctional bid committees, and instability for the lack of expenditure.

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“[The] 12 municipalities were unable to spend their conditional grants and 11 of the 12 applied for rollovers to retain these unspent grants,” Thapelo said.

11 municipalities applied for a rollover

According to the North West Treasury, 11 municipalities which applied for a rollover were not approved.

Mamusa lost R5.4 million, Greater Taung lost R751 000, Lekwa Teemane lost R3.4 million, Kagisano Molopo did not spend R4 7 million, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati lost R180 million, the City of Matlosana lost R37.8 million, JB Marks lost R64.5 million, Rustenburg local municipality lost R101 million, Moses Kotane lost R4.6 million, Ratlou local municipality lost R9.2 million and Ngaka Modiri Nolema district municipality lost R79.4 million.

Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, City of Matlosana in Rustenburg, JB Marks, Ratlous, and Mamusa are among the municipalities which regularly returned unspent money to Treasury.

Result of mismanagement, poor governance and corruption

Political analyst and senior lecturer from North-West University, Prof André Duvenhage, said this was a result of mismanagement, poor governance and corruption.

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“Mismanagement, lack of governance, corruption, and nepotism are the way to state capture,” he said.

“These figures cannot lie, people need services that they are not getting. This is a serious misconduct.”

Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson on cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs in the North West, Freddy Sonakile, said: “The DA has requested all North West municipalities which failed to spend their conditional grant funding to account for their failure to utilise these funds towards improving service delivery.”

Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality, which failed to spend, R79.4 million covers Mahikeng, Lichtenburg and Zeerust. Residents from these areas often embarked on protests over lack of service delivery.

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