ANC Slams IFP for Mismanagement in Newcastle Municipality
The party slammed the municipality after KZN Finance MEC sent a letter warning the municipality against adopting an unfunded budget and Treasury suspended its conditional grant funding.
The ANC in the Mbuso Kubheka region has been critical of the governance of the IFP in the Newcastle Municipality. In a statement, the party says it ‘is not surprised by the municipality’s poor governance, mismanagement of funds and underspending of serious government grants.’
The letter comes after the KZN Finance MEC Francois Rodgers sent a letter warning Newcastle, along with 12 other municipalities that it would not grant extra funding to municipalities that approve the expenditure of funds that are not available.
“The government of provincial unity will not tolerate poor financial governance as it threatens the state’s ability to provide much-needed services to the communities,” the Treasury statement said.
“Municipalities experiencing financial problems are urged to reduce non-essential expenditure and implement cost-containment measures,” the letter stated.
Furthermore, Newcastle is also one of 24 municipalities where conditional grant funding, totalling R861.4 million, has been suspended.
According to assessments done by the Treasury, the municipality failed to achieve the objectives and goals set out in the Energy Efficiency requirements.
“We are utterly disturbed and disappointed by the perpetual behaviour of the IFP in Newcastle Municipality which continues to disregard every rule in the governance and financial management books. The Municipality has become the epicentre of bad governance and dismal failure of service delivery. It is clear that the IFP is not concerned about the disadvantaged communities who would have benefited from the grant,” commented ANC Regional Secretary, Chris Mhlophe.
The party questioned how the municipality failed to spend the allocated funds from the Integrated National Electrification Programme (INEP) grant which is earmarked to electrify areas that have never had access to power.
“It is a disgrace that grants (such as the INEP) have been suspended while our people, especially in poor rural areas, farming communities and informal dwellings are struggling to be connected to the electricity grid.”
The ANC called on the National and provincial government ‘to rescue the citizens of Newcastle from the human-made IFP disaster of financial mismanagement, corruption, poor service delivery and disregard of the rule of law.
The Newcastle Advertiser sent questions to the Newcastle municipality. There had been no response at the time of going to print.
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