Ilembe accused of favouring Mandeni
"While the municipality has adopted an aggressive campaign to collect money, it will take them about two years to completely recover their financial state."
Despite seeing tough financial times in the past year, the Ilembe municipality wrote off R86.6 million of debt from the Mandeni municipality.
This decision was brought up in the municipality’s annual oversight report for 2015/2016, which sparked outrage among opposition political parties.
The DA in the Ilembe region said the municipality’s decision was used to gain votes during last year’s election, was unfair and had a negative affect on the municipality’s long-term finances.
DA Caucus leader Madhun Sing said this was a political tactic that was unfair to other poor areas within the municipality.
“Do they have to protest to see write-off’s? This money, R86.6 million could have been used to pay off overheads which sit at R78 million or for service delivery as there are some areas within Ilembe that do not have basic services like water.
“The closing bank balance at the end of last year was at a scary low of R26 million. Ilembe’s total revenue is R589 million. Of that amount, R209 million is generated through grant funding while internal income generated from the municipality is only R25 million.
“While the municipality has adopted an aggressive campaign to collect money, it will take them about two years to completely recover their financial state.”
Sing added the decision showed double standards in what is supposed to be a democratic municipality.
“Policies of council must be aggressive and must be applied without fear or favour and that is what we are going to foresee going forward.”
The municipality had not responded to our requests for comment at the time of going to print.
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