Service delivery and clean finances should be top priority
Our city is the third-largest metropolitan area geographically and it is understandable that service delivery may be hampered in some areas due to the size of the city.
Service delivery and clean financial audits should be the Tshwane metro’s priority, according to AfriForum. This after the organisation scored the metro 7 out of 10 in a recent report. “There is still massive room for improvement,” said AfriForum spokesperson Morne Mostert.
The municipal analysis report compares various municipalities across the province. “While it is hard to pinpoint what Tshwane’s biggest issues are, service delivery and clean financial audits are a good start,” said Mostert.
“Tshwane did not receive a clean audit due to irregular expenditure that arose from the smart meter contract which made a big deficit.”
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Mostert said the organisation acknowledged the problems that come with running a municipality as big as Tshwane’s.
“Our city is the third-largest metropolitan area in the country geographically. It is understandable that service delivery may be hampered in some areas due to the size of the city.”
He said clear public participation processes should be followed when it comes to issues such as tariff increases.
“Residents should not be kept in the dark,” he said. “The City must ensure they shed light on important issues and improve communication with the residents.”
In the report, AfriForum found that the metro’s population shows a steady growth of 2.6% per year.
“The number of households had risen from 911 536 to more than one million between 2011 and 2016. The number of citizens stood at about three million in 2016.”
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He said the auditor-general’s last three audit opinions on Tshwane were “unqualified with its findings”.
“R64.8-million was incurred in fruitless and wasteful expenses in 2017-2018. This is compared to R41.5-million in 2016-2017.
“Irregular expenses were the most of all the Gauteng municipalities.”
According to the metro’s latest integrated development plan, the unemployment rate stands at almost 27%, compared to nearly 21% in 2013.
“It is rising and desperate measures need to be put in place to stop this trend.”
The metro had a cash balance of about R2.2-million at the end of the 2016–2017 financial year.
About 30% of the operational budget is spent on salaries and wages.
Speaking on the audit, Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa told Rekord that the report an audit done by AfriForum using their own methodology.
“We are dealing with service delivery by turning around the accelerated service delivery program, going to every region in the city for basic service delivery.”
“Irregular expenditure was because of legacy inherited projects like smart meters, Moipone Fleet, Broadband and Glad Africa which we have legally dealt with.”
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“I cancelled Glad Africa, the Peu matter is concluded and the Moipone matter is in court, we won the case against Broadband which is set aside.”
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